70 ■ STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



WHERE THE DISEASE FIRST APPEARED, 



Ninety years ago, or about the beginning of the present century, it 

 prevailed sufficiently to attract attention. How long before this it had 

 been making inroads upon peach groves, no one seems to have written 

 nor recollected. When it first appeared there were no great interests at 

 stake, and hence no counteracting efforts to its progress. About the year 

 1800 this disease made such inroads upon the peach groves near Philadel- 

 phia, in the states of Pennsylvania and Delaware, as to cause anxiety and 

 alarm. From this locality it found its way into the states of New Jersey, 

 New York, and Connecticut wherever peach trees were planted in any 

 considerable number. 



As peach-growing was not at that time a specialty in any part of the 

 country, very little is found on record to show how extensively the disease 

 prevailed or how fatally it did its work. In fact, we can not be sure that 

 commercial peach-growing had much to do with the pomology of that 

 time. A few trees, here and there, for domestic use was the, prevailing 

 method of cultivation. As facilities for transportation of perishable 

 fruits long distances were not at hand, only those who lived within easy 

 reach of great cities grew peaches for market. 



Under such conditions, a disease like yellows could do its work without 

 exciting any special interest in the public mind; and it seems quite proba- 

 ble that this insidious disease crept slowly along into the clumps of trees 

 which adorned the yards and gardens for years before it became a subject 

 of historical observation. And there is no evidence that our country has 

 been entirely free from peach yellows from the time it first appeared, 

 even many years before a record was made of its existence. Some seasons 

 seem to have been much more prolific of disease germs than others, so 

 that the industry waxed and waned according to the prevalence of the 

 mysterious cause of destruction. 



NOTES OF ITS PROGRESS. 



We can not better describe its characteristic progress than by speaking 

 of it as both epidemic and contagious. It may be regarded as contagious. 

 With this element ever present in its nature we can readily see how it 

 lives from year to year without attracting much attention. The few old 

 trees which may be found in by-places and neglected gardens hold the 

 germs in readiness for dissemination at the first favorable opportunity. 

 Like small-pox or whooping-cough in the human family, peach yellows 

 has its hiding-places, and because these are not searched out and reno- 

 vated the disease germs are rendered active by climatic and physical con- 

 ditions to which we are strangers, and then comes the epidemic. 



These epidemic periods seem to have come around in 1800, 1830, and 

 about 1868, and now, in 1892, the fourth climax has been reached. 

 We shall be disappointed if it does not wane again during 1898-94. 



FIRST ATTEMPT IN CHECKING YELLOWS. 



In 1875 the first attempt at systematic sanitary measures to check its 

 progress was made in Allegan, Ottawa, and Van Buren counties, Michi- 

 gan. This was a small beginning, and was poorly executed, but where 

 would the peach industry be today if this beginning had not been made ? 



