BITTER PIT INVESTIGATION. 



187 



APPENDIX III. 



BITTER PIT INVESTIGATION. 



Circular No. 3. 

 Pathologist's Branch, 

 Melbourne, 15th August, 1911. 



Having been appointed to investigate throughout the Australian States the disease in apples and pears commonly 

 known as Bitter Pit, a disease which causes serious loss and is particularly injurious to our export trade, it has been deemed 

 advisable, at the outset, to issue a series of questions which will enable every fruit-grower to assist in the inquiry by giving 

 the benefit of his knowledge and experience for the general good. 



3. If not, what reason do you assign for its absence ? 



4. If it does occur, what varieties of Apples and Pears do you grow, and which are affected with Bitter Pit, arranging 



them according as they are very bad, bad, or slightly affected ? 



5. What varieties have you found absolutely free from it ? 



6. Ia what year did the disease first make its appearance in Apples and Pears respectively ? 



7. At what age of the trees have you found the fruit affected ? 



8. At what stage of the growth of the fruit was the disease first observed ? 



9. Have you noticed the disease to be worse when the individual tree is bearing a light crop or when bearing a heavy one ? 



10. Name varieties in which the disease only appears in store ? 



11. When Pit develops in storage, have you found it mostly on the surface or deep-seated ? 



12. What is the nature of the soil and subsoil in your orchard ? 



13. Have you noticed any difference in the prevalence of Bitter Pit in different classes of soils ? 



U. Has manure, whet iei as ploughed-in green stuff, stable, or artificial, any effect upon the disease ? 



15. Have you noticed any difference, as regards disease, between manured and unmanured trees ? 



16. Have you applied lime to trees subject to this disease, and witli what result ? Have you tried lime and green manuring 



combined '.' 



17. Have you found arsenical spraying to mark the fruit in any way ? 



18. Has drainage any effect upon the prevalence of the disease ? 



19. Has the mode of cultivation any influence on the disease ? 



20. Has the system of pruning, whether severe or light, any influence on the disease ? 



21. Is the disease affected by the stock used, and have you ever tried working a variety liable to the disease on different 



storks ? 



22. Have you observed whether colonial seedlings are particularly subject to the disease ? 



23. Have you observed the disease on any other fruits than Apples and Pears ? 



24. What other diseases have you observed associated with Bitter Pit ? 



25. Was Bitter Pit particularly prevalent in your orchard during 1910-11 ! If BO, "hat U 



26. Which was the worst season you have experienced with this disease? In what ye; 



were they wet or dry seasons ? 



27. Is it on the increase in your orchard or district ? 



28. Have you formed any idea as to the cause of Bitter Pit ? 



29. Any other remarks ? 



Name- 

 Postal Address — 

 State- 

 Date— 



N 2 



