l8o TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOIS 



We had often heard of this disease in Southern Illinois, but until this 

 time, had formed no just conception of its destructive etl'ects. 



It will be proper, here to remark, that the orchard in question 

 had been wholly neglected; the greater part of the peaches had been 

 stung, and the weeds were reaching well up into the heads of the trees. 

 It is needless to add more with respect to this orchard, tlian to say, since 

 the rot appeared, it has not paid interest on the cost of planting the trees. 

 About eight days after our attention was directed to this orchard, the rot 

 appeared in our own, and so rapid was its dissemination, that fully as 

 large a force was needed to pick and remove rotting fruit, as would have 

 been necessary for marketing the crop. The next year seven eighths of 

 our cherry crop rotted ; and each year since, our own fruit and that of 

 otliers near, has not escaped. 



In our own grounds we have experimented a good deal on such 

 varieties as Tillotson, Serrate Early York, Hale's Early, and are well 

 satisfied that the rotting of the latter variety would never occur away from 

 glandless varieties, so long as the skin of the fruit is free from wounds. 

 But such as are stung by curculios or wounded by them at any time, or 

 even such as are punctured by a pin, after the stoning process is com- 

 pleted, will rot. When a tree has many damaged fruits on it, the 

 spores producing the rot seem to fall upon that which is sound, rotting 

 it also. 



One of the ex-Presidents of the Illinois Horticultural Society, the 

 Hon. A. M. Brown of Villa Kidge, says that he has carefully experi- 

 mented by catching curculios, and picking every stung fruit oft' his 

 Hale's Early trees, and in every instance with satisfactory results. In 

 short, he does not consider either the curculio, or rot, any great hinder- 

 ance to peach growing; as he can easily catch the former, and thereby 

 prevent the latter. 



Two years ago, last year, and again this, in our own grounds we have 

 clearly demonstrated the correctness of his views, as a brief statement 

 of this yeai-'s operations will show. We have about twenty bearing trees 

 of the Hale's Early. These trees were set in diflerent parts of an old 

 orchard, to fill vacancies, which from time to time had occurred. Three of 

 these trees stand at an exposed corner of the orchard, that is, where fruit- 

 insects come in from surrounding orchards. 



Two of them were run once in two days until the stones were hard- 

 ened, when no further attention was paid to them. After this, eveiy 

 peach on these two trees was punctured, either for the deposit of eggs 

 or for food, and all rotted. The third tree was run every morning; and 

 each day, after the run of the orchard was completed, a curculio catcher 

 was left near for the convenience of jarring the tree in the evening or at 

 any other time any one should happen to pass that wa}-. About one- 

 third of the fruit on this tree was stung, but this was all picked oflT and 

 not a peach rotted. 



Of the remainder of the trees, scattered over the orchard, four of them, 

 like the one we have just mentioned, were protected. From these a sup- 

 ply of fine peaches for the family and a few boxes besides were secured, 



