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JL J B R A .x Y 
* MJR S 1924 -r 
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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF A<MUfcME 
DEPARTMENT BULLETIN No. 1253 
Washington, D. C. 
July 21, 1924 
DISEASES OF APPLES ON THE MARKET. 1 
A Statistical Study Based on Certificates Issued by the Food Products Inspection Service of the Bureau of Agri- 
cultural Economics during the Period from November 1, 1917, to July 1, 1921. 
By D. H. Rose, Plant Pathologist, Office of Fruit-Disease Investigations, Bureau 
of Plant Industry, in cooperation with the Division of Fruits and Vegetables 
of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics, 
INTRODUCTION. 
Apples are the most important fruit crop of the United States. 
Every year they outrank citrus fruit, peaches, and strawberries, 
both in size of crop and in actual money value. According to 
statistics published in the Yearbooks of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture for 1920 and 1922, the average annual total crop 
for the five years from 1916 to 1920, inclusive, was 179,208,000 
bushels. The average annual commercial crop (apples sold 
or to be sold) for the same five years was 80,337,000 bushels (esti- 
mated) . The commercial crop during this period was therefore about 
45 per cent of the total production. The total 1920 crop, 223,- 
677,000 bushels, at farm prices of December was worth approximately 
$256,781,000. Forty-five per cent of that sum, or $115,551,000, can 
be assumed as the minimum value of the commercial crop. It was 
certainly worth more than that, but there is no way of telling how 
much more. 
Reductions in size and value of the apple crop must therefore be 
reckoned on a basis that usually approximates $200,000,000 for the 
total crop and at least $100,000,000 for the commercial crop. They 
are, consequently, of decided interest to the whole country. In the 
field, such reductions are brought about by various climatic condi- 
tions, by plant diseases, and by animal and insect pests. Estimates 
of loss caused in the field by plant diseases alone to the 1919 crop 
varied from 5 to about 12 per cent of the total crop. But nearly half 
of every apple crop is sold for consumption as fresh fruit. It must 
i It has been the writer's duty to give instruction and advice to the inspectors of the Food Products 
Inspection Service of the Bureau of Agricultural Economics in the identification and diagnosis of fruit 
diseases as these are found on the markets and also to investigate these diseases so as to insure 
correct diagnosis. The data presented in this bulletin were collected and tabulated while the writer was 
engaged in this cooperative work. 
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