290 
The rot in green fruit is undoubtedly due to fungi ; and 
probably Dr. Halsted’ is correct in ascribing the decay 
which he studied to Cladosporium fulvum, but there is no 
round for referring that observed by Mr. Goff?, Prof. 
alley? aud myself? to the same fungus, although part of 
it may, or may not, have been due to it. 
Whatever may be the cause of rotting of green tomatoes, 
the rot in ripe tomatoes, as observed the present season es- 
ecially, must be ascribed to fermentation, chiefly acetic. 
The fermentive action is evidently not begun until the re- 
sistance of the living tissues is greatly reduced, or entirely 
lost. This may be brought about in several ways. All 
fruit reaches this condition of inability to resist. the inroads 
of disease germs, or of germs of disintegration, when it 
becomes fully ripe—literally dead ripe. The condition may. 
be prematurely brought on by anything which decreases 
the vigor of the plant, and thus enfeebles and shortens the 
life of its ripening tissues. A marked, and from several 
points of view an interesting, example of the early and ex- 
tensive rotting of ripe fruit in plants constitutionally debil- 
itated by propagation for three seasons from seed succes- 
sively selected from the feeblest plants of the preceding 
year, is recorded by Mr. Goff*, in which finally half the 
ripe fruit prematurely rotted. 
This kind of decay is very appropriately called ‘‘ soft 
rot,” and is well described by Mr. Goff as follows: ‘‘ The 
fruit becomes soft and collapses without changing color ; 
the skin finally bursts, permitting the contents to flow out, 
when it dries without detaching itself from the stem.” If 
the fruit rests upon the ground, it often cracks open, and 
the exposed surface becomes speedily covered with a white 
velvety growth*, composed of yeast and Oidium lactis, 
which for a considerable time prevents the contents from 
escaping. This white growth, with the associated bacteria, 
is only a more obvious development of the active agents of 
fermentation which destroys the fruit. | 
The main objects of this note are (a) to point out that the 
study of the tomato rot will be advanced by discriminating 
between the soft rot, chiefly affecting ripe fruit, and other 
kinds, largely brown or black and not soft, chiefly affecting 
green fruit, and that (b) one means of avoiding the former 
is to maintain the health and increase the vigor of the plants 
by judicious breeding, but that for the latter no remedy or 
preventive is known. 
'Proc. Soc. Prom. Agric. Sci. for 1883-4, p. 42. 
*Rep. N. Y. Agric. Exper. Station for 1882, p. 138; 1883, p. 195; 1884, 
ip. 227; 1885, p. 183. 
$Bul. Agric. Col. of Mich., No. 19, p. 5. 
»*Rep. N. Y. Agric. Exper. Station for 1884, p. 379; 1885, p. 249. 
‘Ante, p. 173; report for 1884, p. 227; 1885, p. 182. 
Described and illustrated in Rep. N. Y. Ag. Ex. Station for 1884, p. 380. 

