170 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



to forty per cent. The control trees were still free from the disease, 

 although they stood close upon both sides in parallel rows. 



Ten of the inoculated and diseased trees were removed that autumn and 

 set in Washington on the grounds of the Department of Agriculture. The 

 remainder were left over winter in the nursery rows. In the spring of 1889 

 the latter were carefully removed and set out on the farm of Dr. W. S. 

 Maxwell, some miles distant. None made any growth worth mentioning 

 and all died within a year — some from the shock of transplanting and the 

 rest with plain symptoms of yellows. 



The ten trees set on the Department grounds made considerable growth 

 in 1889, and developed into very characteristic specimens of yellows. The 

 germination of the winter buds six or seven months in advance of the 

 proper time occurred freely on many shoots arising from the stock and 

 fully set at rest all lingering doubts respecting the nature of the disease. 

 The foliage was yellowish or reddish, and the total growth as compared 

 with neighboring healthy trees was also very meager and stunted. These 

 trees were again photographed, November 21, 1890, at which time the 

 unbudded seedlings were much larger and still healthy, while the inocu- 

 lated trees were dead or nearly dead. Between this date and the time when 

 the trees were set, they were examined repeatedly and shown to various 

 persons. During all this period they had unmistakable symptoms of 

 yellows and became gradually more and more feeble. The moving of the 

 trees into different and fertile soil did no good. The five unbudded seed- 

 ling trees standing in {he same row are more than 100 times as large, 

 although one year younger. There was no shock from transplanting, and 

 the difference in size must be ascribed to the stunting effect of the disease. 

 In passing, it is interesting to note that the five healthy seedlings are 

 those noted in my first Report,* p. 145, as having grown from the pits of 

 premature peaches. These trees have continued healthly and now bear a 

 heavy crop of green fruit (July, 1891). 



Of the entire 202 trees inoculated August 12, 1887, only three are now 

 living, and each of these is badly diseased and likely to die within six 

 months. Of this experiment it may be said that all doubts concerning the 

 nature of the disease were long since set at rest. It has corresponded 

 exactly in manner of development and in results to the disease in the trees 

 from which the buds came. Exception must, of course, be noted that 

 none of these trees have ever borne fruit.f 



The virulent nature of the disease is shown by the fact that only one or 

 two buds, i. e., 1-2 square centimetres of diseased surface, were inserted 



* Peach Yellows : A preliminary report. U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1888. 



tSo far as I know, the only ivellHiuthenticated case in which bnds taken from a diseased tree and 

 inserted into a healthy stock have lived long enough and developed vigorously enough to bear peaches, is 

 one communicated by Prof. E. 8. Goff , horticulturist of the State Experiment Station, Madison, Wiscon- 

 sin. This experiment was begun on the grounds of the Experiment Station at Geneva, New York, in 18S6. 

 Professor Goff's statement from memory is as follows: 



"The tree budded was a very vigorous seedling of bearing size. In the latter part of the summer of 1886, 

 I bndded several of the branches with buds of two (or three?) varieties of the peach, sent me by a young 

 man of western New York whose orchard was badly infested with yellows and who was deeply interested 

 in the subject. He assured me at the time that the buds came from diseased trees. 



"More than one half of the buds failed, but several survived and made a good growth the following 

 season, without exhibiting any abnormal appearance. The next season (1888) the branches from the buds 

 bore a good crop of fruit, and the peaches early began to manifest a peculiar appearance, which I recog- 

 nized from description as yellows. The ground of the fruit became a golden yellow color, sprinkled 

 and blotched on the sunny side with very bright or sometimes with deep red. I am not personally famil- 

 iar with yellows, having seen but a few trees affected with it, but I came to the conclusion that the 

 branches from the buds inserted into this tree were attacked with the disease. I came away from Geneva 

 in the spring of 1889, and in the fall of that year, anxious to know what further symptoms this tree had 

 manifested, if any, I wrote to Mr. Churchill, who then bad charge of the fruit trees, and was informed by 

 him that the tree had died. - ' 



Dr. Collier, the present director of the Geneva Station, says that the tree was in an exposed situation 

 and died from an accidental injury. 



