PEACH YELLOWS. 263 



Berrien county, near the same great body of water and 70 miles farther 

 south, the orchards were entirely destroyed by yellows during the same 

 period. Here are two localities subject to the same rigors of climate. When 

 the supposed cause has been acting in both localities why has the disease 

 prevailed only in one? 



;:::,' (4) Sussex county, Del., is almost or entirely free from yellows, unless it 

 be that portion in the immediate vicinity of Milford, yet it was as much 

 subject to the severe winter of 1880-'81 as Kent county. 

 f Seaford is only about 35 miles south of Dover, and the difference in eleva- 

 tion is so trilling that they may be said to be subject to the same temperature, 

 especially during cold waves. Dover has suffered severely from peach yel- 

 lows for three years, while Seaford has been entirely free. In August, 1888, 

 I visited Seaford, talked with many growers, and examined about thirty 

 orchards, some of them very carefully. I did not see a single premature 

 peach or any well-defined case of yellows, and did not hear of any. Most of 

 the grovTcrs are entirely ignorant of the symptoms and effects of this disease, 

 so far as personal experience goes. The only suspicious trees I saw were a 

 few in thrifty young orchards recently imported from New Jersey. 



About Seaford are many old orchards wnich were seriously injured by the 

 hard winter and which still show its effects in discolored or dozy heart-wood 

 and partially dead limbs and trunk. 



One of the orchards of Wm. E. Cannon was of special interest, because 

 it was very badly injured by the winter in question. The orchard was then 

 three years old. Some of the trees died, and none of them have entirely recov- 

 ered. The trees lost large patches of bark from trunk and limbs, and the year's 

 wood was frozen brown, and has since become dozy and rotten, frequently 

 involving all the annual rings except those laid down within a year or two. 

 There is much dead wood, and a slight pull breaks down large growing limbs. 

 Nevertheless, the foliage was green and full grown, and the orchard bore 

 peaches and looked as if it might continue to bear for a number of years. 

 This orchards now contain five or six hundred trees ; originally, seven hun- 

 dred. I carefully examined each one, but found not a trace of yellows. 



An orchard twenty-four years old, belonging to Charles Wright, was also 

 badly injured by the winter and has never entirely recovered. It contailied, 

 originally, about eight hundred trees, seventy-five of which are now missing. 

 There are many partially decayed branches and some dead trees, and all are 

 lichen-covered. The orchard bore peaches, and will, no doubt, continue to 

 bear for a number of years. I carefully examined every tree, but found not 

 a trace of yellows. On the same farm is an orchard of one thousand seven 

 hundred trees now fifteen years old. This was also badly injured by the win- 

 ter, and looks more ragged and broken than the older one, but yellows has 

 never appeared in it. Col. E. L. Martin also has two orchards, one eighteen 

 years old and the other fifteen, which were badly injured by the winter of 

 1880-'81. Yellows has never appeared in either, and the younger one has 

 borne four good crops of fruit since 1880. I saw both. 



The history of these orchards is the history of all the old orchards about 

 Seaford — all suffered from the unusual winter, but none developed yellows. 



EXCESSIVE KAIN-FALL. 



As long ago as 1807, Judge Peters observed that yellows was unusually 

 prevalent during two successive rainy seasons, and concluded that excessive 



