26 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



be kept out of young orchards. It is certain that Mr. Owen's orchard is unsur- 

 passed by any in the town of Benton. 



Mr. Clark,' nurseryman of St. Joseph, P. 0. Benton Harbor, informs me that 

 under his personal observation the application of hot water and ashes revived a 

 tree and produced a new liber. The Yellows invariably appear on the outer 

 limbs, and generally in a single branch, which merely ripens a few peaches 

 prematurely. Thence it spreads slowly over the whole tree, consuming three, 

 four, and even more years, before absolute death ensues. 



In the orchard of John T. Edwards, diseased peach trees grafted upon plum 

 stalks were entirely destroyed by the Yellows without injuring the root at all ; 

 below the graft the live, healthy root sent out strong plum stalks. 



Thomas Taylor, microscopist of the Washington Department of Agriculture, 

 made experiments in July 187"-3, which are reported in the monthly report for 

 August and September, page 387, in which he claims to have discovered, the 

 cause of theY^ellows in the spiral thread-like fungus, known as noemaspora. 

 The spores resembled caraway seeds, so small as to be invisible to the naked 

 eye, which when treated to the action of nitric, muriatic, and niti'o-muriatic 

 acids, received no damage, but continued their life-like motion. When, how- 

 ever, these spores were combined with concentrated sulphuric acid, or caustic 

 potash, they become entirely destroyed, and their organic structure was no 

 longer visible. 



Mr. Taylor's conclusions were these: First, rain will wash these fungi 

 spores over the tree ; second, the action of sulphates and acids will destroy 

 them ; third, the application of hot lye and washes to the bark and roots of the 

 tree will probably prove curative. 



On the 3(j8th page of the same report, a minute, two-winged fly, called the 

 Mycetobia (Mycetophila) persicae, is described, and this remark appears inci- 

 dentally, '^several of this genus feed upon fungir . Similar two-wingi-d flies are 

 found in our oichards. Now, if these flies feed on fungi, and if they feed upon 

 the spores of the noemaspora, if noemaspora fungus is ttie cause of the Yellows, 

 the disease, Y^ellows, lioni its first appearance on the outer limb of a peach 

 tree, is accounted for. Here is a field of investigation for our State Entomolo- 

 gist, if we had one. The result of our studies and investigations can be thus 

 summed up: the Yellows may be contagious, but our experience, does not 

 confiim the idea of contagion. The Yellows does not depend upon the soil; 

 though a poor soil and bad cultivation will accelerate the disease. No abso- 

 lute cure has been discovered for the Yellows, though the application of hot 

 water and ashes has in many instances checked the progress of the disease, 

 produced nev7 foliage and ripened a good crop of fruit; and while the necessity 

 of destio}iug every slightly diseased tree in order to protect an orchard is an 

 open question, it is perfectly safe to dig up aud burn every old case of the 

 Yellows. 



AVe have great confidence in the Owen method of treating a young orchard, 

 and are contident that the Yellows may be regarded as half shorn of its terrors, 

 and is shortly to be so well understood as to no longer be a terror to fruit 

 orchards. The St. Joseph fruit region, and the fruit region of Southwestern 

 Michigan are indignant at any attempt to localize the diSt-ase of the Y''ellows 

 exclusivply in their section ; because we know it exists both in Northwestern 

 and Souihwestern Michigan. We do not believe it will exterminate our trees 

 any more than are the trees of Delaware and New Jersey exterminated. We 

 have not less than 600,000 peach trees by actual count in that part of the 



