The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-10-08
WHY FRUIT DECAYS.
An Interesting Scientific Article on ths
Subject.

An Interesting Scientific Article ON the
| Subject.
Our worst enemies, says the .Scien-
| &fc american, are the smallest. All
the ravenous beasts in the world, mad
dogs included, probably destroy fewer
human lives than are destroyed in New
York city alone by the ravages of those
minute but virulent organisms of the
genus maicrococcuS, to which we owe
smallpox, diphtheria, and some other
malignant diseases. Similarly, the
thousand sturdy weeds which annoy
the farmer, the caterpillars and grass
hoppers which occasionally devour his
crops, are relatively innocent and harm
less compared with the numerous mi
croscopic pests which rust his grain,
rot his potatoes and fruit, and other
wise levy their burdensome taxes with
out making themselves visible.
| just at this season, not the least In
teresting of these individually insigni-
| ticant, collectively enorm Gus, nuisances
are the two forms of fungus growth
which have most to do with the untime,
ly destruction of fruit-naucor nlucedo
and pendulum, glancone.
Our apples decay, not because it is
their nature to, as Watts might say,
but because it is the nature of some-
thing else to seize on them for subsist-
ence, as we do, at the same time max
ing of them habitat, as we do not.
Kept to themselves, apples and other
fruit never rot; they simply lose their
juices by evaporation, shrivel, and be-
come dry apd hard, or, if kept from
drying, remain substantially un-
changed, as when securely canned. 1t
is only when invaded by the organisms
we have named that they lose color and
quality, take on offensive tastes and
odors, become covered with white or
green mold-in short, develop rotten
ness and decay.
1t was not until the microscope was
brought to bear that the real nature of
the process became clear. Now we
know that, so far from being the COM
plement of growth, the antithesis of
life, decay is in reality the taking on
of more rapid though specifically diff
ferent growth. 1t is synonymous not
with death, but with intensely active
life.
La general structure, the numerous,
microscopic fungi are very much alike,
consisting mainly of a network of color
less cells and flaments, called the
myceliuna. This is the vegetative part.
There is, besides, a productive part, in
which is produced the seed or "spore, +"
the structure OF which is different in
the different genera. In the mucor
each reproductive flament bears a
globular swelling at it's superior ex-
tremlty, in the interior of which the
spores are developed. In the pencil
lium glaucum the reproductive filament
bears tuft of from four to eight
branches, which, in turn, produce upon
their extremities chaplet of small
oval spores. 1t is called 7oencilljnn1 on
account Of this pencil-like tuft of its
spore-bearing flaments, and glaucun1
from their blush green tint. The
mold so freq uently seen in oranges is
produced by this fungus. It is COM
paratively Of slow growth, and the al
teration it produces in the properties
of the fruit it lives in and upon is not
. When fruit is invaded by either of
these fungi, the vegetative tilaments
send their branches among and around
the fruit cells, and rapidly envelop
them in a network of mycelium. alb.
sorbing the substance and juice Of the
: fruit, and producing the chemical
transformation characteristic of decay.
All this goes on in the interior of the
fruit, the qualification of the fungus
taking place only on the surface, il
contact with the atmosphere. For this
reason fruit covered with firm, fine
skin, like the apple, may be mass OF
what we call corruption within-iI
other words, thoroughly decomposed
by fungus growth-while no visible
( mold-the fructifying part-appears OF
1 the surface. On the other hand, thin
3 skinned fruits like the strawberry
g which are easily pierced by the repro
ductive flaments, are often covered
with an abundant qualification in {
very short time, for the fecundity O.
s these microscopic fungi is sometimes
: as marvellous as the rapidity of thei
: growth. For example: A single
0 zoospore of the 1oeronoSpora 6,Jestans
r which causes the potato rot, will en-
i velop the cellular tissue of a potat,
a leaf with mycelium filameuts in twelv
IL hours, and fructifcation will be com
S pleted in eighteen hours longer. On
j. square line of the under surface of
n leaf, where the fructifcation naturall
# takes place, may bear as many as thre
J. thousand spores. Each spore supple
t half a dozen zoospores, Individually
# capable of originating a new mycelium
From one square line, therefore, ther
e may come, in less than two days, near
r ly twenty thousand reproductiv
e bodies, and square inch may yiel
n nearly three millions No wonder tn
it disease spreads rapidly.
1t In the case of fruit, decay may b
x originated in two ways, and two only
|, by direct contagion or by wind.wafte
It spores. With frm-skinned fruit lik
q apples, still another condition is esser
it tial, namely, break in the skin of til
n fruit to allow the parasite to enter an
,. take possession. In every case of d.
# cay in apples, the center of disturbanc
n will be found at bruise, scratch, {
q puncture and unless such way |
10 opened, the apple may hang until it
. dry as leather, or it may lie for weel
in direct contact with rottenness, an
remain perfectly sound.
TO this it may be objected that IL
constant presence of the fungus in d
cay is no proof that it is the cause
te that condition, on the contrary, tt
r breaking down of the fruit tissue
oh IN