144 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Voi. xxr, No. a 
To obtain more minute puncture wounds, small glass tubing was drawn 
out to very fine capillary points which were reinforced with a block of 
paraffin, leaving only about i mm. of the point projecting. On May 8 
eight green fruits were punctured with these glass points and wrapped 
in absorbent cotton. In four of these cases the cotton was moistened 
with a water suspension of the organism and in the other four with sterile 
water for controls. Abundant infection developed about the punctures 
on the four inoculated fruits and none on the controls. Four green 
fruits were also punctured with glass points dipped in the inoculum and 
then covered with moist cotton. All of these likewise showed infection 
about the punctures. These lesions more closely resembled field infec¬ 
tion than those resulting from needle punctures, but even the capillary 
points apparently produce larger wounds than those through which field 
infection evidently occurs. None of the uninoculated punctures resulted 
in the white “bird’s-eye” spots which so often accompany bacterial spot 
in the field. At the same time five fruits which were just beginning to 
turn yellow and ripen were inoculated by puncturing with the glass points 
and applying cotton moistened with the inoculum. No infection oc¬ 
curred on these fruits. 
A number of ripe and green fruits were picked from the vine, punctured*- 
with the glass points, placed in glass moist chambers and sprayed with 
inoculum. No infection occurred. This would indicate that no infection 
is likely to occur after the fruits are picked. 
In a later series of inoculations of ripening fruits, numerous very small 
jet-black spots with irregular, lace-like borders were obtained. These 
lesions were somewhat suggestive of the fruit blemish termed “blotch” 
in the parlance of market pathology. While reisolation from these 
lesions was unsuccessful, these results render it unsafe to state that 
mature fruits are absolutely immune to infection. 
Needle prick inoculations in green tomatoes with the organism isolated 
from pepper bacterial spot have resulted in lesions similar to those pro¬ 
duced by the cultures from tomato. 
To summarize, it should be noted that: (i) No fruit infection occurred 
on plants atomized for foliage infection; (2) no infection occurred on 
unwounded fruits wrapped in cotton saturated with inoculum; (3) 
infection was obtained by puncturing fruits with a needle or glass point 
dipped in inoculum; (4) infection was obtained by puncturing the 
fruits with a glass point or sterile needle and then spraying the surface 
with inoculum or covering the surface with cotton soaked with inoculum j 
(5) °nly rarely, if at all, was infection obtained on mature or ripening 
fruits, and field observation also indicates that fruit infection occurs 
only when the fruit is green; (6) the organism from pepper caused typical 
fruit infection on tomato. 
