454 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



prominent a feature of the yellows. Last year in Maryland, West 

 Virginia and Virginia, the yellows' trees everywhere sprouted 

 abundantly late in the season. This year exactly the opposite oc- 

 curred in most orchards. AVhatever sprouting I saw was mainly in 

 midsummer and the drooping foliage rather than the sprouts became 

 the conspicuous symptom in late September or early October. Never 

 theless in spite of these slight peculiarities the standard symptoms 

 of the yellows may be given as follows: Premature, red spotted 

 fruit, bushy or wiry growth on the twigs, accompanied usually in 

 the early stages and always in the later stages, by the yellowing and 

 slight dropping of the foliage. When trees are in fruit the prema- 

 ture red flecked fruit is usually the most definite and recognizable 

 symptoms. An expert, inspecting for yellows, can easily learn, how- 

 ever, to recognize the foliage symptoms either of non-bearing trees 

 or of those after the fruit is oft" so as to insure their removal with- 

 out waiting for another year. Exceptional or mild cases only need 

 cause him to "be in doubt. 



Little Peach Disease. 



The little peach disease is in many respects similar to the yel- 

 lows. As a result of considerable investigation work the writer con- 

 cluded it belonged to the yellow group. Its symptoms, however, 

 are mostly difterent from yellows or even, the reverse of yellows. 

 On the little peach disease, as its name indicates, the fruit is re- 

 duced in size. It varies from two-thirds to one-half to even one- 

 quarter the normal size, according to the stage reached by the 

 malady. The fruit is also belated instead of premature. The belat- 

 ing may occur from three days to nearly a month. Usually on trees 

 recently affected they are about a week later. Trees affected with 

 little peach rarely throw bushy sprouts and only when they are 

 cut or frozen back so that new growth is stimulated. Even then th*,' 

 new growth is not wiry and slender to the extent it is on a tree af- 

 fected with yellows. Trees affected with peach yellows often fail 

 to throw the wiry sprouts. Trees affected with little peach have the 

 drooping and inrolled leaves similar to peach yellows; in fact have 

 the foliage symptoms that have been so common to the yellows dur- 

 ing the past year. As a rule trees affected with the little peach die 

 more quickly than those affected with yellows. Ordinarily a little 

 peach tree dies in about three years, while the yellows' tree dies in 

 four or five 3'ears. Little peach is controllable by exactly the same 

 methods as yellows, namely by a tree to tree inspection and prompt 

 eradication on the appearance of the first visible symptom. Occa- 

 sionally it is hard to determine whether an individual tree has the 

 little peach or the yellows, especially when not in fruit. Sometimes 

 apparently both diseases occur on the same tree. In ordinary or- 

 chard treatment, it is not necessary to distinguish these two diseases 

 as the tree should be rooted out in either case. Every tree af- 

 fected with peach yellows or little peach allowed to remain in the 

 orchard becomes an infection center, distributing or likely to dis- 

 tribute the disease to all the trees around it. 



