228 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



New Jersey [apparently not in all] they are durable and productive as they had been 

 formerly here. * • * The worm or grul>, produced by the wasp depositing its prog- 

 eny in "the soft bark near the surfac* of the ground, is the most common destroyer. 



* * * When trees become sickly I grub them up. I find that sickly trees often 

 infect those in vigor near them by some morbid effluvia. Although I have had trees 

 twenty years old, and knew some of double that age (owing probably to the induration 

 of the" bark rendering it impervious to the wasp, and tlie strength acquired when they 

 had survived early misfortunes), yet in general thej- do not live in tolerable healtli after 

 bearing four or five crops. * * * Fifteen or sixteen years ago [1790- 91] I lost one 

 hundred and fifty peach trees in full bearing in the course of two summers by a dis- 

 ease engendered in the first season. I attribute its origin to some morbid infection in 

 the air, * * * The disorder being generally prevalent would, among animals, iiave 

 been called an epidemic. From i)erff ct verdure the leaves turned yellow in a few [V] 

 days, and the bodies blackened in spots. Those distant from tlie point of infection 

 gradually caught the disease. I procured young trees from a distance in high health 

 and planted them among the least diseased. In a few [?] weeks they became sickly, 

 and never recovered. * • * After my general defeat and most complete overthrow,, 

 in which the worm had no agency, I recruited my peaches from distant nurseries, not 

 venturing to take any out of those in my vicinity. I have since experienced a few 

 instances of this malady, and have promptly, on the tirst symptoms appearing, re- 

 moved the subjects of it, deeming their cages desperate in themselves and tending to the 

 otherwise inevitable destruction of others. 



Judge Peters said he then had two hundred trees of all ages — thirty-two 

 yarieties; Mr. Co.xe, of Burlington, N. J,, had "double that number," and 

 Edward Heston, a neighbor of Peters, had "seven or eight hundred trees * 



* * now in vigor and very productive." On page 23 Judge Peters adds, 

 in a note of later date: 



Mr. Heston begins to suffer by the disease I call the yellows, though he has fewer 

 worms than common in other modes [of cultivation]. 



Nearly two years later, September, 1807, Judge Peters records in a brief 



note, that — 



As I predicted the yellows are seen making destructive ravages in Mr. Heston's peach 

 plantation. I have lost a great proportion of my trees [the 200] by the same malady 

 this year, some of them j-^oung and vigorous. We have had two successive rainy sea- 

 sons. I do not recollect ever to have seen more general destruction among peach trees 

 throughout the whole of the country. It seems that excessive moisture is one of the 

 primary causes of this irresistible disease. 



Again we read: 



I am pursuingmy old plan of re-instating my peach trees lost last season [1806 or 

 1807] by my unconquerable foe, the disease I call the yellows. I obtain tliem from 

 different nurseries free from this pestiferous affection. The worm or wasp [^-Egeria] 

 I have in complete subjection. I should be perfectly disinterested in proposing that 

 the society offer a premium for preventing the disease so fatal ; for I shall never gain 

 the reward. 



Again Judge Peters writes: 



I still think [November 17, 1807] that the disease so generally fatal (more so this year 

 than any other in my memory), called the yellows, is atmospherical. ♦ * * Com- 

 pare this account [of thrifty orchards in Delaware] with the actual state of the peach 

 in our country, and judge whether we li e in a region favorable to its growth. Mr. 

 Heston 3 attempt at cultivating tliis treein the southern manner begins already to faiL 

 His trets are evidently infected, and many are on the decline. The yellows are uni- 

 versally prevalent this season throughout the whole country [i. e., around Philadel- 

 phia]. 



It is to bo regretted that with all his writing Judge Peters left no clear 

 account of the symptoms of the disease. There is nothing more definite than 

 the following remark: 



The shoots of the last season were remarkably injured by the excessive drought, and 

 the extremities of many limbs are entirely dead [February 11, 1806J. Teguments of 



