34 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



facts were known to us last fall, but none of the fruit growers In the south- 

 western fruit belt of Michigan were inclined to publish abroad this unpleasant 

 fact, because of the injury that might thereby be done to the Spring Lake and 

 all intermediate fruit regions, and because our own fruit growers are by no 

 means conyinced beyond a doubt that this is the true Yellows, and claim for 

 the whole fruit belt "of western Michigan, north and south, St. Joseph, Colonia, 

 Waterveliet, South Haven, Saugatuck, Holland, Spring Lake and Muskegon, 

 the benefit of the doubt. For six successive years the bearing peach trees of 

 all the Michigan fruit belt, particularly the peach trees of the St. Joseph fruit 

 belt, which number upwards of 600,000 trees, have borne large crops of peaches 

 without any rest. So great has been the overbearing, that tree and soil have 

 been taxed to the utmost, to mature, ripen, and sustain the enormous burden 

 of fine fruit. The season of 1869 was wonderfully prolific, and the last season 

 of 1872 would have been far beyond the unstinted abundance of 1869, had not 

 such a drouth prevailed. Here attention should fix upon the fact that neither 

 in 1870, nor 1871, nor 1872, has Western Michigan enjoyed its usual quantity 

 of rainfall. The drouth of 1872 fell upon the trees with the withering power 

 and the blighting properties of an Arabian Sirocco. Flowers burned up ; corn 

 shriveled ; shade trees starved for water; and it was notorious that Michigan 

 peaches were poorer than ever before in the history of the fruit belt. All the 

 late peaches withered, their skin wrinkled around the pit like the skin folds on 

 an Lidian squaw, and no one imagined they would be fit to pick. At last one 

 good heavy rain came which gave new life to the trees, revived the drooping 

 foliage, sent rich juices into the fruit and increased the grand total of the crop 

 at least 200,000 baskets. These deleterious influences affected alike all parts of 

 the fruit helt, north or south. The winter of 1872-3 has been exceptionally 

 cold, teaching a lesson as to the possibility of extreme cold upon the western 

 shore of Michigan unimagined heretofore. Hundreds of peach trees are dead, 

 but whether from overbearing, freezing, or Yellows, will probably never be 

 known. It may be safe to assert that the great majority of old peach trees 

 that went into the winter with an impaired vitality are now dead and will be 

 burnt. The St. Joseph Fruit Growers' Association having had its attention 

 drawn thereto by Dr. Hull, of Alton, Illinois, during his visit to this fruit 

 region in 1869, took up the subject of Yellows in 1870 and appointed a com- 

 mittee consisting of J. E. Chamberlain, John Whittlesey and M. W. Manning, 

 to prepare a short history of the Yellows and send the same to every fruit grower 

 in the St. Joseph fruit region. The following was a part of the report of the 

 committee: 



"The original cause of the disease, as given by Downing, and believed by 

 many intelligent horticulturists and fruit growers, is as follows: 



" The malady called the Yellows is a constitutional fault, existing in many 

 American varieties of the peach, and is produced in the first place by bad cul- 

 tivation and the consequent exhaustion arising from successive over-crops; 

 second, afterwards the disease has been established and perpetuated by sowing 

 the seeds of enfeebled trees, either to obtain varieties, or for stock. 



"About 1800, or a few years before, attention was attracted in the neighbor- 

 hood of Philadelphia to the sudden decay and death of the orchards without 

 apparent cause. From Philadel|ihia and Delaware the disease gradually 

 extended to New Jersey, where, in 1814:, it was so prevalent as to destroy a con- 

 siderable part of all the orchards. About three or four years later it appeared 

 on the banks of the Hudson. From 1812 to 1815 it gradually and slowly 

 extended nprthward and westward to the remainder of the State. 



