PEACH YELLOWS. 235- 



When about the end of the last half century Eieazur Morton, George Parmelee and 

 Curtis Boughton, the pioneers of Saint Joseph peach culture, set their respective 

 orchards— an aggregate area of "25 acres — people opened their eyes in amazement at this 

 exhibition of lunacy, thinking the product of buch large orchards would overstock the 

 market. 



These references concern only those counties in which poach growing was 

 begun earliest and has always held a prominent place. However, prior to 

 1860, according to Mr. Lyon, peaches had been grown successfully to a greater 

 or less extent in at least fifteen other counties, for periods ranging from six 

 years to upward of thirty years. 



In all of these counties, through all of these years, from 1800 down, the 

 pe ich grew thriftily and bore 'good crops. When not injured by borers or by 

 those hard winters which every now and then killed or enfeebled some of the 

 orchards, the peach tree was healthy, hardy and long lived. There was no 

 yellows in any part of the State. 



This disease, known for so long in the east, first appeared in Michigan in 

 1866 or 1867, in the extreme southwestern part of the State, in Berrien county. 

 I have been at considerable pains to verify this statement and think it can 

 be accepted unqualifiedly, or with only that general qualification given to all 

 inductions which rest on a multitude of details, some of which have not been 

 examined. In this case absolute proof would be nothing less than concurrent 

 exact testimony concerning every peach tree ever grown in the State, but such 

 rigid proof no one demands beyond -the limits of the exact sciences. The 

 belief that yellows did not appear in Michigan until 1866 rests upon the posi- 

 tive statements of hundreds of intelligent peach growers and on the negative 

 evidence of all the rest. 



The disease first appeared in a circmscribed area near the village of Saint 

 Joseph, within a few miles of lake Michigan and in the most favored peach 

 region of the State. According to W. A. Brown, of Benton Harbor, it is said 

 to have appeared first on the lake shore four miles south of St. Joseph, in the 

 orchard of D. N. Brown, in trees brought from New Jersey and planted in 

 1863 or 1863. It extended at first slowly, being confined to the vicinity of 

 Benton Harbor for several years. Later it spread more and more rapidly, until 

 by 1877-'78 it was destructively prevalent in nearly every orchard in the 

 county. The fact that at first it occurred only in a limited area, or sporadi- 

 cally, accounts for the various dates assigned for the first appearance of the 

 disease. It is certain that the disease was not prevalent enough to attract 

 general attention or cause well founded alarm until after 1870. After 1875 

 few new orchards were planted and the old ones rapidly disappeared under 

 its blighting influence. Even young orchards prematured all their fruit with- 

 in two or three years' time, and rapidly disappeared. 



The progress of peach growing in Berrien county from 1866, when yellows 

 first appeared, to the culmination of the industry in 1874 or 1875 was almost 

 phenomenal. Careful estimates of the number of peach trees in the fruit 

 region of this county were made by private enterprise from time to time with 

 the following results: 



Year. » No. of trees. 



1865 201,603 



1869 385,530 



1872 594,467 



In 1865, a canvass showed that only about two hundred and fifty persons 

 were engaged in fruit raising; in 1873 the number had increased to over 

 eight hundred. 



