346 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



grubs if otliers would take tlie yellows from his trees. He had tried ashes, lime, 

 bone-dust, and other remedies, but they did not stop or cure yellows — possibly 

 because a sufficient quantity had not been used. 



H. E. Bidwell, an old orchardist and a careful observer, has his say as fol- 

 lows : I was yellows commissioner at South Haven, and had a lavorable 

 opportunity to watch its growth and development. Bacteria are found in 

 budded and inoculated trees three years before the tree dies with the yellows, 

 and in budded trees two years before you can discover any outward appearance 

 of its existence. By taking buds I'rom affected trees which may not then show 

 the disease, and budding into healthy seedlings, and budding afterwards from 

 the budded trees, the nurseryman can propagate the disease for years and not 

 know of its presence. ^My theory is that while the young trees are in vigor, the 

 bacteria are multiplying by leeding on the sap, and are carried by the circulat- 

 ing fluids to all parts of the tree, and in time are multiplied sufficiently to 

 choke up the circulation and destroy the life of the tree. 



We can not give credit for the following, but give it place because it varies 

 from the other opinions: Post mortem examination may locate the presence of 

 bacteria, but this proves nothing in regard to the cause of the yellows — no 

 more than would be proved by maggots in a dead carcass as to the cause of the 

 death of the animal to which it belonged. We believe that the yellows in 

 peach trees is caused by attacks of frost on unripened shoots. It is a common 

 sight to find a peach orchard with leaves green and luxuriant one day, and 

 next day to find them destroyed by a severe frost during the intervening night. 

 This sudden check to growth is, we think, the cause of the disease, and renders 

 possible the presence of fungoid growths and bacteria on the roots. When 

 peach trees are cultivated in orchard houses, or under glass, where the leaves 

 undergo the natural process of changing color, and gradually dropping off as 

 the shoots become matured, no case of " yellows " has ever been noted, and this 

 is good evidence that imperfectly ripened wood, when subjected to killing 

 frosts, has a tendency to induce this peculiar disease. 



A correspondent of the Practical Farmer speaks out promptly and shuts his 

 lips together as though he expected no farther controversy: We are asked if 

 we ever knew the disease to be cured. We have, and now give the formula 

 that cured several trees in Newcastle county, for which we can vouch, from our 

 own observation. One ton jjeat made soluble by caustic soda, one-half ton sul- 

 phite of lime (gas lime), 200 lbs. caustic potash, 40 gallons coal-refiner's 

 residuum (mixed with the caustic potash as soon as the barrel is opened, else 

 the residuum becomes hard, when it takes a long time to dissolve it), 200 lbs. 

 bone meal, 500 lbs. animal charcoal, the black residuum of the Ferrocyanide 

 of potassium manufacturers. These crude materials carefully mixed together 

 moistened, and left to heat, and then turned carefully, mixing in to hold the 

 escaping ammonia, 500 pounds of land plaster will make a fertilizer that has 

 cured many trees affected with the yellows, and caused large crops of fruit 

 from trees regarded as worthless. A peck of the material should be worked in 

 the soil around the tree in the early spring and a month afterwards a peck 

 more. Two years' treatment may be required to fully establish the health of 

 the tree, though the improvement will be marked in three months. The dis- 

 ease is caused by a lack of phosphoric acid, and of the peculiar peach element 

 — prussic acid, supplied in an assimilable form by this preparation. 



