72 
LON A. HAWKINS 
Studying the effects of Sclerotinia fructigena (Pers.) Nort. upon 
apples. This writer made a single inoculation upon the side of each 
apple. When the fruit was half rotted he split the rotten half from the 
sound portion and analyzed the two parts separately. 
In the present investigation this method was considerably modified. 
The peaches were first divided into quarters and the opposite quarters 
were combined. One of the two samples thus obtained was inoculated 
and the other was used as a control. Before the peaches were sampled", 
however, they were thoroughly scrubbed with a solution of bichlorid 
of mercury i to i,ooo. They were quartered and separated from the 
stone with a sterile knife and immediately placed in sterile, glass- 
stoppered weighing bottles which had been tared, and then weighed. 
One set of these samples consisting of one sample from each peach 
was inoculated from the stock cultures of the fungus by shaking up 
spores in sterile water and pouring them over the cut surfaces of the 
fruit. The other set, the controls, were treated with a like quantity 
of sterile water. The two sets of samples were kept side by side under 
the same temperature and moisture conditions for two weeks or more. 
At the end of this time the samples were examined and any of the 
control samples found to be infected with fungi were discarded together 
with the corresponding inoculated halves. This procedure was also 
followed with any of the inoculated portions found to be infected with 
fungi other than Sclerotinia. As a further precaution cultures on 
beef agar were made from the interior of the remaining samples and 
if any of these cultures indicated the presence of contaminating fungi 
or bacteria in the fruit the samples were discarded. After these 
inoculations were made the samples were prepared for analysis. 
In the analyses, determinations were made of the pentosan, acid, 
and sugar content of the peach samples. The amount of alcohol- 
insoluble material which reduced Fehling's solution when hydiolyzed 
with dilute hydrochloric acid, was also determined. The data thus 
obtained were calculated on the basis of wet weight of fruit at the 
time of inoculation and it was then possible to compare the content 
of the different compounds in the sound and rotten portions of the 
same peach. 
In the pentosan and acid determinations it was found advisable to 
use an entire sample for each determination. In the case of the 
sugars, however, a sample served for the two sugar determinations and 
for the determination of alcohol-insoluble substance which reduced 
