48 REPORT OF THE AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH 



been confirmed by the death of many trees this year which 

 showed these symptoms markedly last year. Over-watering 

 and want of cultivation do not appear to be the cause 

 of the yellowing and there are no indications of insect or 

 fungoid disease. The early symptoms appear to be iden- 

 tical with the mysterious disease in the Eastern United 

 States known as " Peach yellows," but the later symptoms 

 of Yellows," namely, premature ripening and reddening 

 of the fruit with very poor flavour, are not developed. 

 The yellowing is therefore fortunately not due to kt Peach 

 yellows." The next point to settle was whether or not the 

 yellowing is caused by unfavourable soil conditions. Evi- 

 dence was obtained during the summer indicating that 

 the yellowing is due to the soil and that green manuring 

 with shaftal may prove to be the best remedy. The yellow 

 condition does not appear to be propagated by buds taken 

 from affected trees, as both these trees and trees with green, 

 healthy foliage gave rise to budded plants which appeared 

 equally healthy. Experiments are in progress to test these 

 ideas still further and definite evidence on the subject 

 should soon be forthcoming. 



Packing Experiments. 



During 1911, a considerable amount of attention was 

 paid to the improvement of the present methods of packing 

 fruit at Quetta with a view of making the most of the 

 present railway transport to India- The results obtained 

 were dealt with in detail in the progress report of 1911 and 

 can be shortly recapitulated as follows : — 



1. Returnable packages for long journeys in India are 



unsuitable on account of the cost of returning 

 the empty boxes and on account of the frequent 

 mistakes on the part of the Railway Company 

 in charging the wrong rates. 



2. All packages must be designed to prevent as far as 



possible thefts in transit by the railway servants. 

 The frequent occurrence of these thefts is a 

 great obstacle to the extension of the Quetta 



