FLORIDA (STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
70 
clients came to us and told us we must 
pack their fruit right then. We investi¬ 
gated it carefully and found a lot of fruit 
on the trees that was ripe, so we started 
to ship and that was where we first dis¬ 
covered the stem end rot in our section. 
I sent some to the Experiment Station 
and some to Washington. 
I have tried various things in the soak¬ 
ing tank; ammoniacal copper carbonate 
and other things, but it does not seem to 
help any. 
Prof. Fawcett: I believe the infection 
of the stem end rot which shows up aft¬ 
er the fruit is packed is made either be¬ 
fore or during the time it is going 
through the washer. I believe additional 
infection might take place in the washer, 
but if you treated them after they came 
out, it would destroy the danger of in¬ 
fection. The twenty minutes or so the 
oranges are in the bath would not be 
time enough for the fungus to grow into 
the rind. 
I believe a feasible way to prevent in¬ 
fection from the wash would be to have 
a fungicide sprayed upon the fruit when 
it comes out of the washer. I suppose 
many of the frtiit are infected on the 
trees through the rains and dews, possi¬ 
bly. 
Mr. Skinner : How about permangan¬ 
ate of potash? Would a spray of that be 
effective. That is what they are using in 
California and what I used this year. 
Prof. Fawcett: They use that in Cal¬ 
ifornia for Brown Rot and it is very good. 
The only trouble with permanganate is 
that it stains the oranges, especially if the 
orange has a rough surface. 
Mr. Temple: The trouble with the 
suggestions that we disinfect the orange 
after it leaves the washer is this: no mat¬ 
ter if you do that, and disinfect every 
orange that has become contaminated in 
the washer, the fruit that is already dis¬ 
eased goes through and shows no signs 
of breaking down, so that you cannot tell 
the sheep from the goats. After it is 
packed, it breaks down very quickly and 
the results on that box of fruit are just 
the same as though you had not disin¬ 
fected it at all. 
