PEACH YELLOWS. 237 



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contagious disease has nearly destroyed the peach orchards at Saint Joseph." 

 In 1880, says Charles W. Garfield, there were scarcely any peach orchards 



left at Saint Joseph. The growers attributed their destruction to yellows. 

 In 1878 W. A. Brown of Benton Harbor writes : 



The disease is supposed to have been introduced in this vicinity about the year 1866, 

 by meane of trees imported from New Jersey, which had been grown from tlie buds of 

 infected tree?. But few trees were so affected, ;ind it was several years later when the 

 disease in*,he vicinity of Benton Harbor first assumed a contagious type. A few trees 

 in the large orchards south of Saint Joseph showed signs of yellows, but the character 

 of the disease being knovs^n, such trees were immediately destroyed, and many fine 

 crops were grown before the tre<*s were all affected. The area of country infected was 

 comparatively small until the past two seasons (1877 and 1878), when the disease has 

 assumed a more virulent character, and has spread over all of Berrien county, except- 

 ing a small portion in the extreme southern part. 



In 1887, A. O. Winchester of Saint Joseph writes: 



We do not know where it came from or how introduced. * * * The disease first 

 appeared (first destructively) in the center of the peach belt eighteen years ago, and 

 gradually spread north and south along the lake shore until there was not a healthy 

 orchard left. 



This is not an overdrawn picture. No one who knows the character of the 

 authorities cited will doubt the general correctness of the foregoing state- 

 ments. Indeed, were further proof necessary, a great mass of additional tes- 

 timony might be brought forward. The peach industry was literally swept 

 out of Berrien county by yellows within one decade. There can be no doubt of • 

 this. From being the foremost peach county in Michigan, with an acreage 

 more than equal to that of all the others combined, it became ninth in order, and 

 could boast of only 503 acres. In other words, with a prospect of an expanse 

 in peach growing which would be limited only by market facilities and the 

 ordinary accidents of culture, yellows appeared in destructive form, and the 

 industry gradually fell away to about one-twelfth of its former proportions. 

 The exact figures for 1874 can not be obtained, but the following statement 

 is approximately correct : 



From the immediate vicinity of Benton Harbor and Saint Joseph, peach 

 growing disappeared almost completely. In 1884, the townships of Benton 

 and Saint Joseph contained only 47 acres of peach orchard, and the entire 

 north part of the county, including these two townships and seven others, 

 had an aggregate of barely 210 acres. Even these figures do not tell the 

 whole truth. In the townships of Benton and Saint Joseph the bearing trees 

 numbered at this feime only 757, and in the entire nine townships, aggregating- 

 about 225 square miles, they numbered only 6,668. 



Many peach orchards have been planted in Berrien county since 1884, but 

 it remains to be seen whether these will escape the disease which raged in the 

 last decade. At present it looks as if they might. 



T. T. Lyon of South Haven states that the disease appeared in the central 

 part of Van Buren county somewhat earlier than at South Haven, following, 

 as he thinks, the line of the railroad from Berrien county, northeast, i. e., 

 being disseminated from nurseriee. 



