22 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



are not affected, but which soon will be, if the diseased tree is allowed to 

 remain. It is only the exercise of ordinary wisdom to jirotect our orchards 

 from the contagion of a virulent disease for which we know of no cure. 



No one has a right to harbor an element of danger to the lives or property 

 of his neighbors, particularly, as in this case, where he cannot derive from 

 it any personal advantage or profit to himself or to any one; his own opinion 

 in the matter is of no consequence in opposition to the combined experi- 

 ence of all others. Tliere is no use in trying to be sentimental in this 

 matter; when anything is shown to be destructive and dangerous, the sensible 

 way is to get rid of it. No one is injured, but valuable pro])erty is protected 

 and saved. The object of the law, in this case, is to compel men to destroy 

 what is of no value to themselves, but is a source of great danger and injury 

 to their own property and to that of others. 



Some men, nnfortunately, are so obtuse that they would allow the stench 

 and poison emanating fi-om the dead carcass of an animal, or a cesspool, to 

 permeate their own dwellings and those of their neighbors, if we could not 

 interpose the law to compel them to abate the nuisance. And so in this cajse, 

 a man may allow the borers to destroy his trees rather than take the trouble to 

 dig them out. This, however, is his own matter; but such a man would also 

 allow the yellows to sjiread among his own trees and enter my premises and 

 destroy my trees also, and this becomes another matter; he is invading my 

 castle and I have a right to exclude him, to force him to destroy the elements 

 of danger. 



But without a law to compel the destruction of trees diseased with tlie yel- 

 lows, persons having orchards, however valuable, and however strongly disposed 

 to exercise the most energetic measures to eradicate the disease among their 

 own trees, they must, in reality, be comparatively helpless, and almost wholly 

 at the mercy of an ignorant, obstinate or careless neighbor who allows the dis- 

 ease to appear and spread, taking its own course among his perhaps worthless 

 seedling trees, and thus inoculate the orchards of the entire neighborhood. 



Certainly the operation of an adequate law, duly enforced, cannot result any 

 more unfortunately than has been the outcome of the peach interest where the 

 yellows has appeared, and where there has been no law for the prevention of 

 its spread, while on the other hand the law will tend to hold tiie disease in 

 check, and, if thoroughly carried out, may enable us, if not to wholly exter- 

 minate the disease, to at least greatly reduce its formidable dimensions, and 

 prevent its remaining a matter of serious alarm. 



Our State Pomological Society enjoys the reputation of being a very careful, 

 conservative body, but duly alive in the promotion of the important interests 

 which it is organized to subserve. At the December meeting of this society at 

 Paw Paw, the necessity of legislative action regarding the yellows was fully 

 recognized early in the session by a vote of the society. President Lyon selected 

 a competent committee to draft a bill for the suppression of this disease, which 

 the society should recommend to the Legislature for its adoption. This com- 

 mittee, composed of gentlemen engaged in growing peaches, two of them men 

 of well-known legal ability, one of whom was formerly also an influential mem- 

 ber of the upper branch of our Legislature, performed this work in an efficient 

 and thorough manner, the draft was looked over and approved by President 

 Lyon, J. J. Woodman, A. G. Gulley and other experienced and well-informed 

 members, and finally received tlie sanction of the society by being adopted as 

 its recommendation to our Legislature. This bill was subsequently more 

 carefully considered and examined by the committee, and finally en- 



