142 Report oF THE BOTANIST OF THE 
The ideal preventive is to keep the fruit free from scab by 
thorough spraying. Cold storage will hold the disease in check, 
but it does not destroy the fungus, and the rot will develop 
when the fruit is taken into a warm place. The loss from the 
rot will be greatly reduced if the fruit is stored in a dry, well-° 
ventilated house where the temperature can be kept at 45° F. or 
below. Dipping apples that were seeded with spores of the 
disease in solutions of copper sulphate and of formalin appeared 
to check the damage from this rot, but did not check the com- 
mon soft rot or blue mold. 
It is not believed that the disease will become epidemic except 
in yery unusual and occasional seasons like the past, when all 
conditions favor its development. But the fact that orchards 
are now abundantly seeded with the spores of the disease make 
it important that apple growers spray more thoroughly to pre- 
vent scab the coming season than in the past. 
INTRODUCTION. 
Apple scab — a fungus disease familiar to all fruit growers — 
does more or less damage every year. Moist and cool seasons 
are very favorable to it. These conditions existed in 1902, and, 
as a result, the attack of scab was unusually severe. In orchards 
where a constant fight was not kept up against it by spraying the 
loss was enormous. 
In August and September, while the fruit was still upon the 
trees, it was observed that on some of the scab spots there 
appeared a white or pinkish mildew-like fungus growth. A little 
later this growth produced a brown, sunken, bitter, rotten spot. 
On very scabby apples these rotten spots soon coalesced and the 
. fruit became a mass of decay. 
Some Fameuse apples affected with the disease were collected 
by the writer at Charlotte on August 30th and brought to the 
Station laboratory for study. The white mildew-like fungus on 
the scab spots was at once determined as Cephalothecium rosewm. 
This was a surprise. The fungus had long been known, but had 
always been regarded as a saprophyte (a fungus that grows only 
on dead and decaying matter). 
