Peach Yellows. 



397 



Whether the branch upon which these peaches are borne is re- 

 moved or not, the disease will be found the following year to have 

 spread, involving more branches and possibly the entire tree. 



The second characteristic symptom of yellows — or the first in 

 trees not in fruit — is the appearing of short, yellowish, un- 

 branched shoots or ' ' tips ' ' upon or near the ends of the healthy 

 branches. These sometimes appear upon the ends of lusty water- 

 sprouts, and in such cases I have 

 seen them well developed even when 

 the fruit showed no signs of disease. 

 The tail-piece (page 408) is such a 

 watersprout tip. These little shoots 

 spring from buds of the season, 

 which under normal conditions, 

 would not have pushed into growth 

 until the following spring. These 

 shoots may appear as early as July 

 or even June, but in the early stages 

 of the disease they are usually not 

 seen until late summer or fall. In 

 this state, I see them first, as a rule, 

 in September. When they appear 

 at this date, they rarely grow more 

 than three or four inches long. The 

 leaves upon these yellows ' ' tips ' ' 

 are small and narrow, yellowish, and 

 they usually stand out stiffly at 

 nearly right angles to the stem, con- 

 trasting strongly with the drooping healthy leaves below them. 

 The tail-piece, on page 408, shows a yellows tip of Crawford, 

 photographed late in September. Sometimes several of the 

 uppermost buds upon a twig will start out into this short stiff 

 tip-like growth. This feature is shown in Fig. i. Contrast 

 this shoot with the healthy twig, taken from the same tree, 

 shown in figure 2. These tips sometimes appear late in fall 

 after most of the leaves have fallen. The winter buds sim- 

 ply expand their sickly leaves and the stem may make no growth. 

 Fig- 4 shows such tip, appearing late in October. Occasionally 



4. Yellows ''tip'' 

 appearing late 

 in October, 



