No. 33] . 379 
corrosive sublimate was made at the Station, by cleaning the gum 
from the wounds and then applying a saturated alcoholic solution. 
In another experiment a slice of about a square inch of bark was 
turned back and well washed with the solution, a piece of gum as 
large as a pea was now inserted, the wound again drenched with the 
solution, and the bark tied down. A control experiment on the 
same limb was in every way the same except the corrosive sublimate 
was not used. Both grew vigorously, and the corrosive sublimate 
in this, as well as in the preceding instances, apparently exerted no 
more influence than so much water might have done. Several trials 
were made to burn out the diseased parts with red hot soldering 
irons, but while some of the spots showed no gum for several days, 
all finally began to flow again. Whether by a more thorough trial 
or even by one or two repetitions, the flow could have been event- 
ually stopped, and the wound caused to heal, cannot be told, but the 
process seems to promise the best of any yet proposed. 
DismAskEs OF THE ToMATO. 
Rot in Green Tomatoes. 
The principal malady that came under our observation was one, 
or it may be a complication of several, causing great loss by the pre- 
mature decay of the fruit. The rot usually began at the apex or 
blossom end of the fruit, and extended quite regularly on all sides 
toward the opposite end. It appeared as an even brown rot, with- 
out much changing the form or solidity of the fruit, and occurred 
at all stages of growth from small to full size. The microscope 
showed an abundance of mycelium in the interior of the fruit, accom- 
panied by a profusion of bacteria. No spores were observed, and of 
course the identity of the mycelium could not be established. 
The great. abundance of bacteria suggested the query whether 
they did not originate the rotting, and the mycelium finding a con- 
genial soil came in as a secondary agent, or whether the reverse were 
true. ‘To decide this several inoculations were made by using an 
infusion of the bacteria in the same manner as in similiar experiments 
with pear blight. The infusion was made by rinsing some slices of 
the rotting tomato in water, producing a slight cloudiness from the 
abundance of the bacteria. As the mycelium in the tomato possessed _ 
no spores or loose parts there was little danger of any of it getting 
into the infusion. The part of the plant to be inoculated was 
punctured and a drop of the infusion applied. This was tried on 
the tender ends of the branches and on the young fruit of tomato 
and several varieties of pepper, also on the shoots of potato and peach 
and the fruit of pear, in all some thirty experiments. In not a sin- 
gle instance did any rotting occur, or any other effect than would 
have followed a simple puncture. This at once set at rest any doubt 
that the bacteria acted in any other capacity than as associates feed- 
ing upon the tissues killed by the mycelinm. 
