THE DISEASES OF THE PEACH TREE. 19 



QUESTION NO. 12. 



13. What is the age of the oldest Peach Orchards in your vicinity ? 



Upon sorue soils, and in some localities, and with the same treatment, the 

 same varieties may excel in health and longevity those that are grown upon 

 other kinds of soil, and in other localities. The answers to questions Nos. 11 

 and 12 may throw some light upon this part of our subject. 



QUESTIONS NOS. 13 AND 14. 



13. Has the severity of the last winter had any injurious effect upon the pcacli trees in 

 your vicinity ? 



14. V/Lat was the greatest degree of cold indicated by the thermometer at your place 

 during the last winter, and at what date or dates? 



It has been said, and is generally regarded as a fact, that when the weather 

 is so cold as to cause the mercury to fall to 10'' or 15° below zero, it Avill prove 

 fatal to peach buds, and sometimes to the trees themselves. 



An opportunity now occurs to prove or disprove this assertion and to place 

 the result on record. It also gives an opportunity to show whether young or 

 old trees have stood the cold the best; and what effect it has had upon diseased 

 trees as compared with healthy ones. 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 



The Yellows appears to be of American origin; we cannot find that it is- 

 known in other countries. 



In the Horticulturist, volume 4, page 16, 1849, in an article by H. "W. Sar- 

 geant upon what he saw at the London Horticultural Society's garden, he says: 



"In a conversation which I had with Mr. Thompson on the diseases of fruit 

 trees, he told me that our great peach enemies, the Yellows and the peach worm, 

 are alike unknown here. He has seen one instance only of a disease in the peach 

 tree resembling in its character the Yellows. It was an American tree, I think 

 a George 4th, wiiich w?.3 budded on a peach bottom, and trained against a 

 south wall. It ripened its fruit prematurely, pushed out the clusters of small, 

 narrow leaves, became quite yellow in foliage, and finally died. He attributed 

 it to the fact of its being worked on a peach instead of a plum bottom, as all 

 the other trees in the society's garden are ; and he suggested that we should 

 always bud our peaches on plum stocks. 



, *'I think, however, the disease he referred to was probably imported in the 

 tree from America. If so, it does not seem to have communicate<l the Yellows 

 to any of the English trees." 



In a foot-note to this article, the editor, A. J. Downing, says : " We are 

 every day more convinced that the Yellows is nothing more than a constitu- 

 tional languor, brought about, as we have before suggested, by poor soil and 

 bad culture for several generations. It has nearly disappeared in our neighbor- 

 hood, where there are now (1849) trees sixteen or eighteen years old, bearing 

 every year very fine crops of delicious fruit." 



Many theories have been started respecting the cause of the Yellows, but your 

 committee, not having had opportunity to observe and investigate the subject 

 to the extent desired, do not propose at this time to express their own views 

 as to the cause, or to recommend any special course to be pursued to eflFect a 

 cure of this singular disease. 



Your committee have been requested to read, as a part of this report, the 

 answers that have been received to the circular. As we know of no objection 

 to pursuing this course, we comply with the request, and now proceed to read 

 them in the order in which they were received. 



