334 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 



Tobacco stems or tobacco dust may be used in the same way and, like 

 the ashes, will both act as an insecticide and furnish a laiiie amount of 

 plant food to the tree. The Black Peach Aphis is most troublesome on 

 light sandy soils but may be found on the stiff est clays. For the most 

 part, the insects are wingless and cannot move from tree to tree, though 

 they are probably distributed by ants and other insects. They are found 

 upon the roots during all of the year and in early summer they are found 

 upon the young shoots and leaves; having been, perhaps, brought up from 

 the soil by ants. The effect of the insect is particularly severe upon young 

 trees, which are often, in nurseries and newly-planted orchards, killed by 

 them. On old trees the effect is less severe and, if the trees are well 

 cultivated and fertilized, they may be able to escape with a slight check to 

 their growth. This insect is probably more generally distributed than is 

 supposed, and may account for many of the failures in young trees which 

 have been placed where old orchards have been taken out. In case it 

 becomes desirable to replant with peaches, the land should be used for at 

 least two years for some other crop, and an attempt should be made to 

 increase the humus of the soil by turning under clover or other crops. 



THE WOOLLY APHIS. 



In several parts of the state apple trees are badly infested with the 

 woolly aphis, which attacks the roots as well as the branches, causing 

 knots ai^d s<\ellings to appear. ' If they are very numerous the fruit, 

 when produced at all, will be small and imperfect and the trees will make 

 but little growth. The root form can be treated with wood ashes or 

 tobacco dust, and those on the branches can be destroyed with the kero- 

 sene spravs or strong tobacco water. 



PEACH YELLOWS. 



Yellows of the peacJi is placed under the jurisdiction of the yellows 

 commissioners by the so-called, "Yellows Law," and in case trees are 

 infected with this disease they can require the owners to destroy them 

 within five days, or, if it is not done, they can have the trees destroyed and 

 collect from the township the actual cost of uprooting and burning them. 



Yellows may appear in trees of any age but is seldom seen until the 

 trees come into bearing. It then shows in the premature ripening of the 

 fruit, which takes on a very high color, anywhere from one to four weeks 

 before its usual time to mature, and the surface is more or less covered 

 with red spots. On cutting the fruit open, streaks will be found running 

 from these spots to the pit, around which the color is found much deeper 

 than in healthy fruit. In some seasons, however, certain fruits that 

 naturally red about the pit have this color much heightened, so that 

 these lines should not be taken as indicative of the disease. At about 

 the time the disease appears in the fruit, indications of its pr,esence may 

 be seen upon the branches, where a number of small, narrow and pointed 

 leaves may develop. When the trees are not in bearing this is the first in- 

 dication that would be seen. Sometimes the disease does not appear until 

 late in the autumn, when it manifests itself by the opening of winter buds, 

 which normally would remain dormant until the next spring. These buds, 

 along in November, develop short-jointed shoots, with small, yelowish- 

 green leaves, which often remain upon the trees until mid-winter. Similar 



