202 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



them since. I have grown peuches pretty successfully the 

 last few years, having about five hunclrecl bushels last year, 

 in a small orchard of about two hundred trees. Of course, 

 you will not get a crop every year, but you will get a crop 

 two or three years out of five. The only difficulty is the 

 yellows, and, as Mr. Gold says, that is a disease which has 

 never been accounted for yet, but I think it is gradually 

 wearing itself out. The peaches that we grow here are much 

 finer than those that come from the south, because they are 

 allowed to ripen on the trees. 



QuESTiox. "What can we do to hasten the running out of 

 the yellows? 



Mr. Moore. I don't know. About 1845, I used to raise 

 peaches, and dump a cartload of refuse and poor ones into 

 the pigpens at once ; but the yelloAvs destroyed all the trees 

 I had. Finally, after waiting awhile, with some of my 

 neighbors, I planted a few, and lost them. I am informed 

 that this disease started in Delaware, and travelled north at 

 the rate of about fifty miles a year, until it got up here. I 

 found that it was going out, to some extent there, and 

 supposed it was working itself out. I therefore planted two 

 hundred trees more, five or six 3'^ears ago. Year before last, 

 I got a small crop of peaches ; last year, I got a very large 

 crop. I guess we picked off twice as many as we left on the 

 trees, and we left all the trees could stand under. This year, 

 I should have had a good crop, if it had not been for the 

 yellows. That orchard is going up, but I have got my pay 

 for it, so I shall be tempted to plant another next year. 



Jacob B. Sweet. It was stated very positively in some 

 of the agricultural papers that wood ashes were a preventive. 

 Have you ever experimented in that direction ? 

 • Mr. Moore. Yes, sir ; I have put two or three bushels of 

 leached ashes around a tree at one time. I have also used 

 Stassfurt potash salts, and I don't know what I have not 

 tried, but I have never found anything that would stop it. I 

 think that when a tree is once struck by it, the best thing you 

 can do is to pull it up. 



Mr. Wetherell. I will state a fact given me by Capt. 

 Pierce of Arlington, which agrees with the statement of Mr. 

 Ordway. He has been more successful in cultivating apples 



