P5ACH YELLOWS. Z2d 



3traw or bass [placed around the trunk to keep away the borers] maie the bark tender 

 .and it threw out under the covering sickly shoots. 



This incidental mention of "sickly shoots" and dead extremities, coapled 

 with the other statements quoted, render it likely enough that the appear- 

 ances which he attributed to other causes wore really due to what we now call 

 yellows. So far as I know, Julge Peters was the first to apply the term 

 yellows to a disease of the peach. 



Dr. James Tilton, of Bellevue, near Wilmington, Del., expresses himself 

 more explicitly and leaves no doubt that the disease which he saw was 

 identical with the one now prevalent. In a letter to Judge Peters, Novem- 

 ber 6, 1807, he says: 



The disease and early death of our peach trees is a fertile source of observation, far 

 from being exhausted. * * * Even that sickly appearance of the tree, called the 

 yellows, attended by numerous weakly shoots on the limbs generally, is attributed to 

 .insects by a late writer in our newspapers. 



There is no mention of premature fruit, associated with the " weakly 

 shoots " as a part of the disease, but, as an effect of climate, mention is made 

 that '*a fine early peach, which ripened in Northampton, Va., S3 early as 

 June, did not ripen on my farm before the last of August or the first of Sep- 

 tember." In the same communication Dr. Tilton speaks of "measures pro- 

 posed in our newspapers for curing the yellows," as though the disease had 

 become general. 



I have no doubt that Dr. Tilton saw yellows in 1807, and am strongly 

 inclined to think that Judge Peters was talking about the same disease. 

 'Clearly Dr. Tilton thought so. This would put back the first appearance of 

 peach yellows to some time prior to 1791. 



Returning to 1806-7 we may inquire to what extent this new disease was 

 prevalent. The foregoing citations show clearly enough the condition of 

 orchards around Philadelphia. 



Mr. William Coxe, a nurseryman and frait grower who lived at Burlington, 

 N. J., 20 miles northeast of Philadelphia, writes to Judge Peters on April 5, 

 1807: 



I am perfectly ignorant of the disease to which you give the name of yellows. Noth- 

 ing of this description has ever appeared among my peach trees. For four or five years 

 past my trees have borne well and have resisted the worms. 



Doctor Tilton writes to JadgeJPeters: 



In my jaunt through Maryland I wa? attentive to the subject of your letters. I found 

 the peach trees generally were long-lived, healthy, and bore well. In Edward Lloyd's 

 garden I observed some of these trees 15 or 18 inches in diameter and perfectly healthy. 

 Colonel Nichols, near Easton, abaunds in the best kind of peaches. He U an old resi- 

 ■ denter, and particularly attentive to fruits. 



In reference to Delaware, JudgeTeters himself says: 



I received verbally from a wealthy farmer, Mr. Bellah, who is the proprietor of a 

 considerable landed estate in Delaware (near Dover], the following account, which he 

 says is generally applicable to the culture of peaches in the southern country : 



"In Kent county, Del., they cultivate the peach without any difficulty or risk. * • * 

 They obtain fruit in three years in plenty; and the trees have been known to endure 

 fifty years. No worms or diseases assail them. . * * • There are orchards of 50 and 

 70 acres, and some larger in Accomac and other parts of the isthmus between the bays 

 of Chesapeake and Delaware, fartlier south." 



Timothy Matlack, Esq., writing "On Peach Trees" in 1808, from Lancaster, 

 •85 miles west of Pniladelphia, spjaks of the borer, but does not mention yel- 

 .iows. 



