466 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



But I need not waste the hour in telling you of the import- 

 ance of your calling. To carry coals to Newcastle has never 

 been a paying business, and perhaps there is as little profit in 

 urging the cultivation of fruit upon the attention of the 

 Michigan Pomological Society. It would be more pertinent 

 to discuss some of the difficulties attending fruit culture, and 

 of these I call your attention to the subject of the Yellows in 

 peaches. 



It is generally conceded that the peach is a native of 

 Persia. Its botanical name, Amygdalus Persica, or Persian 

 Almond, has reference to its supposed origin. It is said to be 

 still found growing wild in Turkey-in-Asia. Another variety, 

 Amygd. Esculentns, is a native of Sierra Leone. But wher- 

 ever found growing wild, it is a native of a warm climate, and 

 wherever cultivated in cold climates, some additional warmth 

 or protection is afforded by nature or art. Thus, in England, 

 it is grown under glass, or trained against a wall. In our 

 own country, when grown north of latitude 40'^, it suc- 

 ceeds well only where protected by forests or surrounded by 

 large bodies of non-freezing water. In such circumstances 

 nature affords in the forest the wall-heat, and in the water 

 the glass protection, elsewhere afforded by art. The happy 

 combination of both these influences in our State has fitted 

 Michigan to grow peaches in perfection, although lying mostly 

 north of 42°. 



The fact that the peach is a native of a warm climate, and, 

 wherever grown in this country north of 40", is in a double 

 sense an exotic, — exotic in its origin, and exotic in its range of 

 latitude, — should not be lost sight of in considering the causes 

 which have produced disease. 



The European cultivation of the peach is solely to afford a 

 luxury for the rich. As Fulton well says, " It is to our credit 

 that the United States is the only country in the world that,, 

 either in ancient or modern times, has produced peaches in 

 sufficient quantities to allow them to become a common mar- 



