ry ho 
NEW YORK, AUGUST 2, 1885 
PRICE FIVE CENTS 
fS.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year 1885, by the Rural New-Yorker In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.] 
PRmutogkal 
BLEMISHES OF APPLES, PEARS AND 
QUINCES. 
W. L. DKVEREAUX. 
RUIT of symmetrical form and 
untarnished exterior is what 
nature would always give us 
were it not that the world is 
full of lower orders of organ¬ 
isms always ready to prey 
upon the higher. In some 
cases the attack is made for 
food, but in most the injury Is 
done in making the receptacle wherein is laid 
an egg or planted a spore, from which is de¬ 
veloped growth that reaches maturity at the 
expense of the fruit. Even in our fiuestgrades 
of apples not one-half the specimens are abso¬ 
lutely free from blemish, while among the low¬ 
er grades there are very few untarnished, and 
the ground is strewn all Summer with fruit 
falling from these attacks. 
Over 90 per cent, of blemished and blasted 
fruit Is the result of the operations of two in¬ 
sects and one species of fuugus. This last is 
the apple-peel fungus (Fiuidadium dendriti- 
cutn). Fig. 848. It is perhaps the most abuu- 
dant of all blemishes, but very often the least 
noticed by orchardists,and the only notices of it 
which have appeared lately were those in the 
Gardeners' Monthly in 18C2; in Josiah 
Hoopes’s address to the Pennsylvania Fruit 
Growers’ Society, printed iu the Rural iu 
1870; and those in Brackett’s Farm Talk; 
Barry’s Fruit Garden; Ohio Pomologieal So¬ 
ciety’s Report for 1804; New York State 
Museum of Natural History, 34th report, in 
which Prof Charles H Peck gives description 
and illustrations of it, and, later, Dr. Cald¬ 
well, in the New York Trihuue, IS84, treats 
on its prevalence, aud the damage it has 
caused in Wisconsin. 
It is sometimes called apple scab, as it bears 
a close resemblance to a lichen like scab, very 
often of small size, circular and of a black or 
ashen color. Under the microscope, in its 
early stages, these sooty patches are seeu to 
be composed of a velvety layer of fungoid 
iilameutsaud spores. These appear in many 
rainbow tints aud thus present a most charm¬ 
ing appearance. At one point is seen a golden 
yellow, shading here aud there into a rich 
orange or brilliant red; it is very like a bright 
mass of autumn foliage. The threads are 
quite unlike each other in size aud position, 
and the spores are rounded, but of mauy dif-* 
ferentshapes. Dr. Pock says: “The fungus 
develops beneath the epidermis or thiu outer 
skin of the apple, which at length ruptures, 
breaking up iu small flakes or fragments, 
which remain attached for some time, giving 
a grayish tint to the spot. The margin is gen¬ 
erally well-defined but irregular, and may be 
either darker colored or paler thau the 
center. 
Two other phases of this blemish are 
found: one is a russety patch where the grow¬ 
ing fruit has succeeded iu sloughing off the in¬ 
jured parts, aud replacing them with healthy 
and sound tissue, but with a russeted skin. The 
other bears au appeurauce of ink stains, often 
covering most of the surface of an apple ; this 
is the autumn fungus iu un early stage of 
growth; when fully developed, scab is the 
usual form. While many varieties of apples 
are not thought to be injured for keeping by 
it, towards Spring there will be noticed on 
the remaining apples a depression at those 
scabs, pointing to a former wasting of cells 
there. Among such apples as Northern Spy, 
Esopus Hpitzenburg and Swaar, the regular 
apple rot begins at the fuugus scabs. Its 
power for distorting fruit is wonderful, as is 
shown at Fig. 349, where a number of groups 
are joined together.making a patch covering a 
considerable part of the apple.plainly marking 
its presence by the ill shaping of the fruit. Oft¬ 
en an apple is found quite straight sided on the 
attacked side, while the opposite side is sym¬ 
metrically rounded,and the distance from stem 
to calyx three or four times as great as on 
the attacked side, as seen in Fig. 350, showing 
that on the fungus side the cellular tissue is 
Fig. 348. 
strangled and cramped; hot still there is often 
evinced some effort at growth and expansion 
resulting in thecracking of the fruit, as seeu 
in Fig. 851, where a Flemish Beauty is badly 
distorted—a common occurence with Green¬ 
ing, Spitzsnburg. Falla water, Newtown Pip¬ 
pin, Twenty-Ounce and others. Some seasons, 
even the smaller blotches are found with deep 
tissues. 
The cracking of pears is caused bv this 
fungus. With the Old Belle or Sugar Pear it 
is a constant evil, aud the White Doyenne aud 
Flemish Beauty seldom escape it entirely. 
Fruit, having even the smallest fissures in¬ 
vite decay during wet weather, or when 
placed in a warm and damp situation. Indeed 
these are the conditions whereby spores of 
the apple rot [P. glaucum) germinate and in¬ 
sinuate their mycelium or spawn, bringing 
immediate decay. Unless the epidermis be¬ 
comes broken by eraekiug, abrasion, bruising 
or overt ipeness, and that in a suitable tem¬ 
perature, a spore of decay’ cannot be planted, 
so as to take root and grow. 
But the smallest scabs which may not at all 
have affected the form of the fruit or forced 
its cracking, are, nevertheless, the remains 
of a group of parasites wherein the spore of 
some destroying mold may locate and take 
root. The rosy-colored Triehothecium, (Tri- 
chothecium roseutu) often locates there. Per¬ 
nicious as it really is to growing and matured 
fruit, this eryptogatnic parasite seems to work 
even more damage iu its earliest spring pro¬ 
geny; when it occasions the dropping of 
young fruit, in such large quantities, it must 
be regarded as no feeble factor in causing the 
failure of apple crops. As this fuugus is found In 
early Spring on young twigs which it sometimes 
seriously injures, and also lias been found in 
Europe on thorns, particularly the Evergreen 
Thorn (Cratcegus pyracantha), the twig 
may reasonably be considered as its Win¬ 
ter habitat, from which the ripened spores 
are strewn on the early leaves, and also on 
the young fruit. AU the leaves which are 
attacked soon turn yellow and brown, become 
distorted, curl up, and finally drop off. The 
matured spores, no doubt, become attached to 
the fruit, then just out of the blossom. 
In years when the Fusicladium greatly 
abounds large numbers cf the early leaves 
are found covered with it. Trees thu s attacked 
Fig. 350. 
present an appearance exactly like that of those 
swarming with plant lice, and by blasting the 
foliage it brings about the same serious result, 
causing the fruit to drop. The year ’S3 was 
remarkable for fuU blooming orchards—it 
was the beariug year—and yet a very scant 
crop was realized. Orchards then reported as 
having their foliage injured by aphides, had 
in many cases, to tbe knowledge of the writer, 
been entirely free from lice. The sickly 
foliage had been sapped by fungus mycelium, 
instead of the aphis. 
Not only are the leaves attacked, but tbe 
stems of the blossoms and fruit are often en¬ 
circled with it, iu such instances blighting 
tbe fruit. The same happens when the fuu¬ 
gus groups around the stem in the cavity, but 
not so when around tbe calyx. 
The fungus which is known on mature ap¬ 
ples as “the scab,” is of the latest spring crop, 
and does not make its appearance until the 
apple is as large as a hazel-nut. But few 
Fig. 351. 
spores are produced in this situation, while 
the fuugus, when growing on the leaves, 
yields a great abundance, supported with a 
much more meagre growth of threads than 
when situated ou the fruit. 
Mauy orebardists deem the weather the in¬ 
itial evil, in accordance with a notion that 
the mildew locates only where fruit has re¬ 
ceived a check in growth or injury of tissue 
from cold. Mudie, an old writer on nature, 
says “Fungi, by what names soever they may 
be called, are not locomotive destroyers, the 
sporse or germs are passive, and will not ger¬ 
minate unless they come in contact with in¬ 
jured or decaying matter.” As a rule, me¬ 
teorologists ascribe the origin of the scab to 
climatic causes: J. S. Lippincott says, “The 
state of the atmosphere is the predisposing 
cause of the check to vegetation which pre¬ 
pares for the access of fungi." Andrd Poey 
says: Fungoid growths are the remit only of 
diseased plants, and not the primary cause of 
their ill-health. 71 The fallacy of these proposi¬ 
tions appears clearly in the light of more 
modern knowledge. The truth is, there are 
fungi which cause the original injury, and 
they can only subsist on living, healthy tis¬ 
sues of plants which alone can . supply their 
wants. These fungi withdraw directly from 
the circulation of the supporting plant their 
rations of carbon. They thus appropriate 
the freshly assimilated material, which other¬ 
wise would be deposited iu the formation of 
new cells, adding to the growth and size of 
the plant or producing fruit. 
On the other hand, saprophagans, such as 
toad-stools, molds, peneillimn9, etc., gather 
their supply of carbon by feeding upon the very 
structure of the plant, now dead, like straw, 
lumber, cheese, bruised or cracked fruit, etc. 
This parasite of the apple prevails in its 
greatest abundance in years having, at the 
time of leafing out and blossoming, weather 
just adapted to its nature. It is best fostered 
in germination and development by cold, wet 
weather. A snow storm at blossoming time 
marks a year of uncommon abundance of the 
scab. No fungus is developed ou apples during 
Summer, but as soou as cold autumn rains, or 
frosts come, the little patches are seen to start 
anew at the borders of the old scabs, and new 
patches are found developing. Apples lying 
in wet grass in autumn weather abouu l with 
fresh growing dusters; they flourish eveu 
under the suow. Dr Petteolas stated as the 
result of five years’ observation, t hat spots of 
fungus invariably formed on young fruit after 
cold nights, low thermometer, and heavy dews. 
There is no reason to believe that the weather 
causes an injury to the fruit, aud thus gives 
footiug to the fungus. It simply supplies the 
best conditions for the sure development of 
every spore. Even in years of warm aud dry 
springs, when no fruit could possibly have re¬ 
ceived injury from the weather, the parasite 
abounds, but less plentifully. Many kinds of 
apples are always subject to it. Ac the head 
of the list are Wildings, Early Harvest, Fall 
Pippin, Greeniug, Spitzenberg, Early Joe and 
1 wenty-Oimce Apples. Nearly or quite exempt 
are the Russets, Bald wimKing, Astraehan, Hub- 
bardston. Nonsuch, and Seek-no-Further; and 
even these, in some localities and in bad years, 
are attacked and seriously damaged. The 
8eckol pear, which is usually entirely free, in 
occasional years is literally strangled. 
The fungus is more abupdant in orchards 
having many wildings—Harvest aud similar 
apples. It was more plentiful iu England aud 
in Eastern United States once, than in the 
Western States; but now it abounds through¬ 
out the West. 
The improvement in pears as regards the 
fungus has been very marked. The old varie¬ 
ties of the Belle class were al ways subject to it, 
but nearly all modern varieties are so per¬ 
fectly free chat they deserve to be called 
“fungus-proof.” And among apples such a 
degree of immunity is found with some varie¬ 
ties that it is not unreasonable to expect some 
future varieties will be perfectly free of 
“scab.” 
As palliatives, clear out of the orchard 
all wildings and all such varieties as are 
very subject to it, and keep swine or sheep in 
the orchard during early Summer. 
Wayne Co., N. Y. 
