468 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



autumn is oul}^ a common instance of this character, and 

 affecting a large number of plants at the same time. A tree 

 whose vitality is seriously impaired will exhibit this change 

 much earlier in the season, and, like the hectic flush of the 

 consumptive, may foreshadow its early death. 



I think no one familiar with the Yellows in the peach 

 will confound this simple yellowing of the leaf, with "the 

 Yellows.'" The yellowing of the leaf is only one symptom of 

 this jjeach malady, and while it is a symptom which will easily 

 attract attention, it is not the most characteristic or important 

 symptom. A peach tree may have yellow leaves, but this 

 alone does not constitute the disease so dreaded by the fruit- 

 grower. 



The disease seems first to have attracted attention in Dela- 

 ware and in the vicinity of Philadelphia. Downing says 

 " About 1800, or a few years before, attention was attracted, in 

 the neighborhood of Philadelphia, to the sudden decay and 

 death of the orchards without apparent cause. From Phila- 

 delphia and Delaware the disease gradually extended to Kew 

 Jersey, where, in 1814, it was so prevalent as to destroy a con- 

 siderable part of all the orchards. About three or four years 

 later it appeared on the banks of the Hudson (or from 181^ 

 to 1815), gradually and slowly extending northward and west- 

 ward to the remainder of the State. Its progress to Connecti- 

 cut was taking place at the same time, a few trees here and 

 there showing the disease, until it became well known through- 

 out most of the warmer parts of New England.'' Fruit Trees 

 of America, p. GOO. 



By means of young peach trees sent out from nurseries in 

 districts where the disease was prevalent, and from trees raised 

 from pits of diseased peaches, the disease has been widely dis- 

 seminated. The latter cause is more widely operative than 

 would appear at first sight. A man from some distant region 

 visits a fruit market, and sees peaches on sale which ripened 

 two or three weeks before the usual time; the peaches are 



