FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
97 
be the thing. As a matter of fact, the 
fungicide, when used to prevent stem-end 
rot, even caused it, because it permitted 
the increase of scale insects which pro¬ 
duced the condition in the orange which 
made it infective. 
When we disturb the balance of nature, 
we do not know what we are going to 
get, and we can tell only by making very 
careful experiments. We do not always 
know what will follow a certain line of 
investigation until we have actually tried 
it. 
Now, let us keep this distinctly in 
mind—the stem-end rot and melanose 
are two different things to handle. 
Mr. Gaitskill: I have had some trou¬ 
ble with frenching, but have ceased to 
have trouble with it since I took up cer¬ 
tain treatments. Whether I am right 
or not, I don't know, but my experience 
has demonstrated to me that it is due to 
too heavy feeding or perhaps unbalanced 
rations. The tree has indigestion. When 
I found this condition, I gave the patient 
a good meal of lime, worked it into the 
soil, and it would not be long before it 
was cured. 
Mr. Poole: I would like to ask a 
question. Do I understand that this fun¬ 
gus, up to a certain point, presents the 
same life history, and beyond that point, 
the life cycle divides into two phases? 
If so, what condition indicates which is 
which, and why, when the fungus gets 
on the fruit, do we get melanose at one 
time, and stem-end rot at another time? 
Mr. Stevens: It is a pretty hard prop¬ 
osition to explain just why it will cause 
melanose at one time and stem-end rot 
at another. In causing melanose, the 
spores from the fungus feed on the green 
tissue. The tissue must be in a certain 
condition for melanose to be formed. In 
that condition it does not penetrate the 
tissue, but forms spots on the outside 
which are a certain manifestation. In 
the case of stem-end rot, if the fruit is 
so infested by scale insects that the fun¬ 
gus can penetrate it, stem-end rot is 
formed. 
Mr. Poole: In other words, if there 
is a hole in the fruit, you get stem-end 
rot ? 
Mr. Stevens: I would hardly say 
that. It may be the weakened condition 
of the fruit. If the fruit is healthy, the 
fungus cannot penetrate it, but in a dis¬ 
eased condition the fungus seems to be 
able to penetrate the fruit. 
Stem-end rot is caused only when the 
fruit is nearing maturity, while melanose 
is caused when the growth is in a young 
and succulent condition. 
Dr. O. W. Sadler: I wish to ask a 
question and make a statement of what 
I have observed. In my groves of grape¬ 
fruit, I had dropped some in gathering 
them. In picking them up, I found 
some of the grapefruit covered with scale 
and melanose around the surface, but the 
stem where the fruit dropped off was 
clean, and yet it never developed stem- 
end rot. On the other hand, drops from 
the same tree, on almost the same spot 
of ground, absolutely clean over the 
whole top of the grapefruit, would devel¬ 
op stem-end rot. I considered the 
thought in my mind whether infection 
was the same as circulation; that is, 
7 
