1884.] FRUIT. 75 



so improved by fertilizing it and then cutting back, that the 

 leaves were six inches long, an inch and a half wide, and as 

 dark-green as you ever saw on a peach-tree. By cutting the 

 tree back you leave only a few buds to start, those start vigor- 

 ously, the circulation goes on freely, and the tree becomes 

 healthy. The experiment so far has been successful, but I do 

 not think it has gone far enough to enable us to say that you 

 can take any tree which shows signs of yellows and save it. 



Mr. . A dozen years ago I commenced the cultiva- 

 tion of peach-trees, and I have had more or less peaches 

 every year. Until this last season I had a pretty good supply ; 

 but the season was very dry, and I saw certain signs which 

 indicated a return of the yellows ; that is, little diseased 

 shoots came out of the tree, close down to the root and grew 

 a few inches with a diseased, pale look. It is the same appear- 

 ance that we had years ago, when it was so difficult to raise 

 peaches in this State. The question has been started in one 

 of our agricultural papers whether there is any hope of saving 

 our peach-trees, and some person who has had experience 

 suggested that the best remedy was the axe. 



Prof. Clark. In regard to the growing of peaches, I think 

 it depends as much on freedom from borers as anything else. 

 That is something that I think the peach grower has to con- 

 tend with more than with what you call the "yellows." I 

 think a good many say that the yellows have injured their 

 trees, when the real trouble was the borer. I think that more 

 young trees die inside of three or four years from the time of 

 planting on account of the borer than from any other cause. 

 I had charge of the nursery at the College, and wanted to 

 sell a man some peach trees. He said no ; he wasn't going to 

 set them out, because the yellows were killing his trees. I 

 asked him if he had looked for the borer. He said " yes." 

 " Did you find him ?" " No." I went out and looked at his 

 trees, and from the first one I took out eight or ten borers. 

 So he went through his whole orchard and found a great 

 many borers. The year after the trees grew well and looked 

 healthy. We have found that the borers bother us more 



