Peach Yeli^ows. 395 



law which demands that yellows shall be eradicated. Commis- 

 sioners were duly appointed and they proceeded with their duty of 

 examining orchards and marking diseased trees. There was lit- 

 tle general or popular knowledge of the disease, and the commis- 

 sioners consequently met with opposition. It was charged that 

 they marked trees which were not diseased. Whether this is true 

 or not, it transpired that a certain peach grower refused to cut the 

 trees which the commissioners had designated. Under the law, 

 the officers cut the trees, but the owner refused to pay costs, and 

 the people brought suit against him for misdemeanor. The trial 

 was long and stubbornly fought. The trees which had been cut 

 were destroyed, and there was therefore no evidence to prove that 

 the trees in question had had the yellows. Much testimony of a 

 general nature was admitted by the court as a matter of general 

 interest and education, but the question which went to the jury 

 was the specific one concerning the defendant's trees. The jury 

 disagreed, and the defendant was acquitted. The result was re- 

 garded as a great victory by those who opposed the operation of 

 the law ; and it has had the effect of discouraging further efforts 

 towards its enforcement in that county. The outcome has been 

 most disastrous. The yellows is now widespread throughout the 

 region which is naturally the best peach section of western New 

 York, and the dying and neglected orchards of careless peach 

 growers are a constant menace to the peach industry. It will 

 never be known, beyond the parties immediately concerned, 

 whether the trees over which the suit occurred had the yellows ; 

 but I have this year visited the neighborhood which was the scene 

 of the conflict and I found orchards ruined by the disease. Any 

 law is impotent unless it is sustained and enforced by public senti- 

 ment. Every farmer should understand that peach yellows is 

 a fatal and communicable disease, and that it is, therefore, amena- 

 ble to control by the police powers of the commonwealth. Like 

 pleuro-pneumonia and tuberculosis, it is a public nuisance. 



When the yellows attacks a bearing tree, the first sign of its 

 presence is usually in the fruit. The one unmistakable symptom 

 in the fruit is the presence of bright red spots which may be lik- 

 ened to measle blotches, and the fiesh is also more or less marked 



