366 
Journal of Agricultural Research 
Vol. XXVIII, No. 4 
to be found in the strawberry districts of the South, a few berries on which the 
calyces are discolored (brown or gray) and plainly diseased. In warm, wet 
weather the condition may become quite general. All varieties may show it but 
Klondike usually suffers most severely. Observations, both in the field and on 
the market, during the seasons of 1922 and 1923, have shown that diseased 
calyces are often associated with disease of the berry itself. Many berries have 
been found which showed signs of Phytophthora infection at the place, where an 
apparently diseased calyx lobe lay in contact with the fruit surface. In such 
specimens a cross or longitudinal section always disclosed the typical vascular 
browning; plantings from affected areas always developed Phytophthora. 
Many other fruits, on which the whole calyx was diseased, showed infection 
at the top in a ring or zone surrounding the base of the calyx. Plantings from 
this infected zone, in different berries, gave Phytophthora, Rhizoctonia sp. or 
Pezizella, or sometimes only bacteria. No cultures have been made from diseased 
calyces nor is there any proof that infection actually spreads from the calyx 
down into the fruit. The presumption is strong, however, that it very often 
does, or in other words, that the calyx when diseased is a source of danger to 
the fruit. One is reminded in this connection of the much more striking case 
of stem-end rot of citrus fruit, which, according to Winston, Fulton, and Bowman, 
(17) is probably due almost entirely to growth of either Diplodia or Phomopsis 
from the diseased calyx into underlying tissues of the fruit. 
SUSCEPTIBLE VARIETIES 
Under field conditions leather rot has been seen mainly on the varieties Klon¬ 
dike and Aroma, and always is much more serious on the former than on the 
latter. Gandy, Missionary, and Lady Thompson appear to be quite resistant if 
not immune. Klondike is the sole commercial variety in Louisiana and one of 
two, Aroma being the other, in Arkansas, Kentucky, and Tennessee; Aroma is 
the main variety in southwest Missouri (Monett-Neosho district) and is of 
considerable importance in southern Illinois. Gandy is grown commercially 
in southern Illinois, and Lady Thompson to a small extent in Arkansas and 
Tennessee. In the States discussed in this paper, the variety Missionary is grown 
very little and was actually seen in only one field in White County, Ark. 
RANGE OF THE DISEASE 
Leather rot was first observed by the writer on Klondike strawberries at Jud- 
sonia, Ark., during the first week of May, 1922, and again a few days afterward 
at Humboldt, Tenn. During the last week of May and the first two weeks of 
June it was found on the market in Klondike and Aroma strawberries from Bald 
Knob, Ark., from Monett, Mo., and from a small producing section near St. 
Louis, Mo. During the strawberry season of 1923 it was seen in the field at 
Gulfport, Miss., Amite and Tickfaw, La. (in the Hammond district), and at 
Beebe and McRae, Ark.; on the market (after June 1) it was seen in berries from 
southern Illinois and the Bowling Green section of Kentucky. Judsonia, Bald 
Knob, Beebe, and McRae, Ark., are all in White County and there is every 
reason to believe that the disease could have been found in practically all Klon¬ 
dike and Aroma strawberry fields in the county if there had been time to make 
the survey. It probably occurs also throughout the strawberry districts of west 
Tennessee, and not merely in the district around Humboldt. The writer has 
neither visited producing sections of east Tennessee nor seen strawberries from 
there but on the basis of information ^furnished by E. E. Conklin, supervising in¬ 
spector for the United States Department of Agriculture at Cleveland, Tenn.,during 
the strawberry shipping season of 1923, he is inclined to believe that the disease 
occurs in east Tennessee also. It is possible that the “lilac soft rot” reported by 
