20 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



THE LETTERS. 



Mk. President, — Early in the spring of 1872 your committee on the Yellows 

 in peach trees, issued the foilowiug circular. In answer to the circular, the 

 letters annexed were received ; and in giving such answers, reference is made 

 by numbers to some of the questions contained in the circular. 



CIRCULAR TO PEACH GROWERS. 



The committee appointed by the Michigan State Poraoloa;ical Society, at its meeting in 

 February, 1873, to investigate the subject of the Yellows in Peach Trees, and report thereon, 

 respectfully submit the following questions to peach growers, in order to elicit information 

 respectmg diseases that injure peach trees; also, the cause and cure, whether of Yellows or 

 any other disease. An early reply from each person who receives this circular is requested, 

 as the committee wish to make a partial report of their doings at the June meeting of the 

 Society, to be held at Kalamazoo. 

 Answers to be sent to J. C. Holmes, Detroit. 



. J. C. HOLMES, 

 S. O. KNAPP, 

 H. G. WELLS, 



Committee. 



1. Has any disease attacked the peach trees in your vicinity? If so, 



2. Do you thmk that disease is undoubtedly what is known as the Yellows ? 



3. Where, in your vicinity, and under what circumstances, did the disease first show 

 itself? 



4. Judging from observation, do you think the disease contagious ? 



5. Have you any theory of your own with regard to the cause and cure of said disease ,- 

 if you have, what is it ? 



6. Have you tried any experiments for a cure that seem to promise success ; if you have, 

 what are they ? 



7. Have you tried any experiments for a cure that have failed of success ; if you have, 

 what are they? 



8. Have you ever noticed whether peach trees having serrated leaves are more liable to 

 be injured by mildew, or from any other cause, than glandular-leaved trees? 



9. Does the disease that is now affecting the peach trees in your vicinity, if any, attack 

 both serrated and glandular leaved varieties alike, or do you find that one resists the attack 

 more persistently tban the other ? 



10. Have di-eased patches been noticed, by you, on the limbs of young peach trees before 

 they have blossomed? 



11. What is the character of the soil at your place? 



13. What is the age of the oldest peach orchards in your vicinity ? 



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

 your vicinity ? 



14. What was the greatest degree of cold indicated by the thermometer at your place 

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



LETTER FROM E. D. LAY. 



Ypsilanti, March 11th, 1873. 



Sir: — Yours of 8th inst. was received. In answer I have to inform you that 

 I have not had any experience in the disease called the Yellows, in peach trees. 

 I recollect that about thirty-five years ago there was considerable written upon 

 the subject, but I do not now remember that there was any definite conclusion 

 reached respecting the cause of the disease. I was told by a nurseryman near 

 Rochester, N. Y., that if I saw anything of the kind among my trees to destroy 

 the diseased trees immediately. 



I find in "Floy's Oichardist," published in New York in 1833, the following; 



"The peach trees of late years are subject to a disease called the Yellows, 

 from the circumstance of the trees having a yellow, sickly appearance. Much 

 philosophy has been spent on this subject without arriving at any definite con- 

 clusion. I shall hazard an opinion on the nature of the disease by stating some 

 observations made in the spring and summer of 1832. The fall of 1831 was 

 mild, and growth was prolonged until the middle of November. At the end of 



