New YorK AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 167 
tion of sugar, which favors growth, also increased the enzym 
production. | 
There is nothing whatever here, therefore, to indicate that 
this enzymic production is a starvation phenomenon, but rather 
to the contrary, since the more vigorous the growth the more 
the enzym; moreover, the addition of carbohydrate food 
(sugar) seemed to stimulate enzym production, whereas the 
presence or absence of cell wall tissue seemed without effect. 
This last fact suggests the idea that the organism makes little 
or no use for nutritive purposes of the wall substance which 
it dissolves. 
THE AGE OF THE CULTURE. 
The enzym content was compared in carrot broth cultures 
(grown at 20-22° C.) of the respective ages of one and a 
half, three, five, seven, and nine days. A rapid increase was 
found from a scarcely distinguishable activity in the precipi- 
tate from the one and a half days’ growth to a large amount 
from that of five days, and a continued but slower increase to 
the strongest action from the oldest cultures, viz., nine days. 
It was noteworthy that the increased degree of enzymic activity 
in the precipitates from these carrot broth cultures was accom- 
panied by a like increase in the degree of rottenness of the 
vegetable tissues in the culture flasks.® 
With cultures made in beef broth grown at laboratory tem- 
perature the results were less marked than those just recorded 
for the carrot broths. The outcome in the series showing most 
s 
positive differences is indicated herewith. Each culture con- | 
sisted of 150 ¢.c. of broth neutral to phenolphthalein : 
°L. H Jones, a student in our labatory, working upon another (un- 
determined) species of soft-rot organism reached like conclusions. Thus 
he found that cultures in potato broth eight days old gave an enzym less 
than one-half as active as were similar cultures sixteen days old. While 
a 5% solution of the alcoholic precipitate from eight days’ growth required 
twenty-five minutes to decompose a turnip section, like solutions from 
the sixteen days’ growth rotted the sections in ten minutes. When the 
eight day culture flask was opened it was found that the potato blocks 
were not fully softened, but when the sixteen day flask was opened the 
blocks were completely rotten. 
’ 3 
: t 
