138 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Mr. "Wiley : When I see a tree with yellows, I stop all other work and take 

 it out; nor do I experiment, but take it out and do other work afterward. 



S. G. Sheffer : In Casco the only things we think of are the ax and spade 

 when we learn of the existence of a yellows tree. [Applause.] 



Tfiursday Evening Session. 



To Joseph Lannin had been assigned the topic: 



HOW LONG DO PEACH TREES LIVE AFTER BEING AFFECTED WITH 



YELLOWS ? 



He remarked: As Mr. Smith has said, we do not know the cause of yel- 

 lows. Prof. Burril thought it was bacteria, but it is not known whether 

 they are the cause or the effect. Prof. Miles examined with a powerful 

 microscope the leaves, fruit, branches and roots, and found bacteria in all 

 these when from diseased trees, but none in any portion of sound trees ; but 

 as before, whether this condition was cause or effect he could not tell- At 

 the American society's meeting he had been shown bacteria in pear blight, 

 and he had seen branches inoculated with it. Pear blight is believed to be 

 certain death to stricken trees. But he (Lannin) knew better. Blight will 

 kill affected limbs but not the whole tree, hence there is an apparant differ- 

 ence between blight and yellows. The bacteria are preyed upon by still 

 more microscopic creatures than themselves, and but for this ihey would 

 multiply into myriads. He had seen yellows in cultivated and uncultivated 

 orchards, high land and low, well pruned and unrpruned trees. One can 

 hardly know, sometimes, when yellows begins. It will show in fruit three 

 weeks before the normal time of ripening. If trees are not in bearing it 

 shows first in leaves, their edges turn up and their points turn down. Affected 

 trees will make a good growth of wood the first year and will blossom the 

 second. The fruit is larger than usual the first year and smaller the next, 

 and turns color still earlier; the third year it is smaller yet, merely a skin 

 over the pit and the tree always dies that season. Inoculation is not accom- 

 plished by mixture of pollen, as experiments have proved. Yellows pits from 

 trees in their first year will grow, but their product is a dying, dwindling 

 thing that never becomes a tree. Pits of the second year will not grow. 

 Yellows is sometimes propagated by budding. The Benton Harbor 

 people are often scoffed at for having tried to cure yellows. But 

 they were anxious to save their trees, not knowing that the disease 

 was incurable. But for their mistakes and mine, you at Douglas 

 would not be in your prosperous condition. You learned by our errors 

 and losses that the only way to treat yellows is to dig it right out and burn it. 



Mr. Whitehead ventured the opinioTi that yellows is caused by bacteria, as 

 certain diseases of men are by microbes, and will eventually be curable. 



Mr. LaFleur mentioned a grower who was positive he could cure yellows. 

 He used three tons of ''cure" but had to destroy 300 trees in the succeeding 

 two years. 



President Phillips then read the following paper upon 



