404 Bulletin 75. 



are such growers in Niagara county and other parts of the state, 

 and their success should reassure all those who despair at the in- 

 roads of the yellows. But it must be remembered that the most 

 painstaking vigilance is required to keep orchards healthy, and 

 the best remedy for the evil will be found in the rigid enforcement 

 of the law. No amount of arguing will stop the yellows. Fire 

 is the only recourse. 



Most of the laws aimed against peach 3'ellows have serious de- 

 fects. The most glaring of these is the fact that the owner of the 

 trees has no appeal from the decision of the commissioners who 

 are appointed to examine the orchards. There is always danger 

 that incompetent or careless men may be appointed to the com- 

 missionerships, whose rulings may not be acceptable even to the 

 best disposed citizens. The disease is so obscure that ohly the 

 most careful and judicious men should be selected to diagnose it, 

 and, even at the best, there are men in almost every community 

 who object to the destruction of their trees. Lack of confidence 

 in the commissioners has been the most serious obstacle to the 

 execution of the New York law, and it was at the bottom of the 

 suit which occurred in Niagara county in 1889. There is a feel- 

 ing, also, that the work of the commissioners in cutting trees is 

 the invasion of a man's property without due process of law. All 

 this is remedied in the Connecticut law — which is the best of all 

 yellows laws, — for the owner may appeal from the findings of the 

 commissioner to the State board of agriculture, which " shall 

 appoint a committee of three experts, which committee shall not 

 include the person who, acting as commissioner or deputy, ordered 

 such tree or fruit destroyed, and the decision of such committee 

 shall be final. " 



Another difficulty with the laws is the danger that political con- 

 siderations will prevail in the appointment of the commissioners. 

 This danger is imminent whenever the commissioners are ap- 

 pointed by any officer or board which is itself a political appoint- 

 ment or creation. The difl&culty can be averted only when the 

 commissioners are created by a non-political board or office, as in 

 Connecticut. 



Other hindrances against the efficient operation of yellows laws 

 are the inadequate pay given the commissioners — often rendering 



