188 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



and are rough, broken, shaggy with lichens, and frequently two thirds dead. 

 Here and there a tree is missing. Others have lost their entire top, healthy 

 growths from the trunk having partially taken its place. The foliage on 

 all was green and thrifty. There were no cases of yellows and no suspicious 

 trees. All of the younger orchards on the same farm were likewise examined 

 with a similar result. 



This experiment is the only one in which I did not superintend the 

 inoculations personally. At that time other duties engaged my attention, 

 and having entire confidence in Mr. Kerr, I trusted it entirely to him, 

 being assured that all the details would recieve his personal attention. 



Yellows has never appeared in any orchard on his farm, or in any on the 

 adjoining farms; was not reported from Caroline county until 1887, is still 

 rare in that county; and is not certainly known to occur anywhere in the 

 immediate vicinity of Denton. If cases do exist at Denton, they must be 

 sporadic and rare. Otherwise I must have seen them or heard of them. 

 Such being the conditions, I could at the date of these inoculations think 

 of no place where one would be more likely to secure buds free from any 

 taint of yellows. 



A hailstorm in June, 1889, destroyed the tops of many of these trees. 

 The remainder were removed from the nursery in November of that year, 

 and were planted in three badly affected orchards further up the peninsula. 

 (a) The trees which went to James W. Green,_ Magnolia, Delaware, 

 were set in the southwest corner of an orchard on his home farm. Yellows 

 appeared in this orchard in 1886 and has been very destructive, more than 

 fifty per cent, of the trees having become affected. The disease is also 

 very prevalent in neighboring orchards, including a younger one on the 

 same farm. The spot selected was specially adapted to the experiment, 

 because the disease first appeared in that part of the orchard, and speedily 

 involved many trees. In 1889 this corner of the orchard contained very few 

 healthy trees, but none had been dug out, and none were entirely dead. 

 The diseased trees were removed in March, 1890, and the land then received 

 a heavy dressing of barnyard manure, i. e., over 100 loads. The young 

 trees, which had been trenched in over winter, were then set in the spots 

 previously occupied by the affected trees, each being given a handful of 

 phosphate. One hundred and thirty-six trees were sent to Mr. Green 

 (ninety-four Beers' Smock and fourty-two Oldmixon), but only 124 

 were set. Some were quite small, but all were healthy. The Smock trees 

 were planted next the highway. 



These trees were under observation from time to time during the growing 

 season and were critically examined September 18, 1890. Only forty- 

 seven had made a satisfactory growth. Of the remainder, twenty-four 

 were dead and fifty-three were "dwarfed and yellowish as though suffering 

 from defective nutrition. None, however, showed any signs of yellows. 

 These trees received good cultivation, were not shaded, and did not appear 

 to be suffering from root aphides. They had been set very deep, and I 

 was at a loss to account for the appearance of the sickly ones, unless this 

 might have to do with it. Later, I discovered that in all of the dwarfed 

 and yellowish trees the tops had overgrown the stocks, and that in all the 

 vigorous trees the growth of the stocks had kept even pace with that of 

 the tops. The dead trees were killed in spring by the black peach aphis, 

 which sapped and smothered the tender shoots. 



(b) The trees which went to F. H. Harper, Still Pond, Maryland, were 

 planted in the east end of one of his orchards on the Howard farm, in 



