PEACH YELLOWS. 271 



Sussex county, Del., in particular, contains largo tracts of very sandy land, 

 and is noticeably less fertile than Kent county. Indeed, from Seaford to 

 Delmar, along the line of the railroad, it is almost a barren waste of sandy, 

 scrub-pine country. Corn and wheat will not grow. Melons and small 

 fruits are the principal products, blackberries being the crop which thrives 

 best. Peach trees planted on this land are yellowish, small, and starved, and 

 the orchards seldom live more than ten or twelve years; yet, in the whole 

 region, I did see or hear of a case of yellows. The trees sometimes starve, 

 but do not die of yellows. In many orchards it is also the practice, and has 

 been for years, to double crop the land by planting four or five rows of straw- 

 berries or of blackberry bushes between the orchard trees. These strong feed- 

 ing plants take from the soil much potash, phosphoric acid, and other min- 

 eral matters, and the peach trees evidently feel the loss; but not even in any 

 of these orchards could I find yellows, although I tramped patiently over 

 many acres and examined hundreds of trees. 



In driving from Seaford to Laurel I passed through an especially dreary 

 country. I have seen nothing like it except in the pine barrens of Michigan. 

 The timber was chiefly second growth scrub-pine or old field pine. The roads 

 were of deep, loose, yellow sand. The wheels settled in over the felloe, and it 

 was not possible to drive faster than a walk. All along the road — in soil, 

 crops, orchards, houses, fences and inhabitants — there was every indication 

 of poverty, and sometimes of a hand-to-mouth fight with starvation; yet no 

 indication of the yellows. Now, in the name of all the chemists, if yellows 

 and starvation is synonymous, why does the disease prevail on the rich loams 

 of Kent and New Castle and not in Sussex ? 



The better soil north of Seaford is a flat, shallow, gray sand, capable of 

 growing 10 or 15 bushels of wheat per acre, but not nearly as fertile as the 

 clays and clay loams of Kent county. There I saw no yellows, and could not 

 learn that it had ever been in that vicinity, the only suspicious trees being 

 recent imports. 



In Maryland a similar parallel might be drawn between the sandy pine 

 lands of Caroline county and the loams and clays of Kent county. Kent is 

 much the richer county, but, so far, Caroline has almost entirely escaped the 

 yellows, while Kent has suffered severely. The more southern counties of 

 Maryland, such as Dorchester, Somerset, and Wilcomico, also contain much 

 poor, sandy land, but yellows has not been reported from that part of the 

 State. 



Again, my observation has been that thrifty trees on fertile soil are quite 

 as likely to be attacked as any. In orchards Nos. 2, 10, 14, 15, and 17 of 

 this report the largest, most rapidly growing trees, on the richest parts of the 

 field, i. e., those receiving the drainage, were the first to be attacked. In 

 Nos. 3, 6, 10, and 14 all the trees had made a remarkably fine growth. 

 Orchards Nos. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 14 are on good clay loam soil, capable of 

 growing from 20 to 30 bushels of wheat per acre and 40 to 50 bushels of shelled 

 corn. Many other affected orchards which I have examined are on excellent 

 soil, judging from its appearance, from the growth made by the trees pre- 

 vious to becoming diseased, and from the character of the wheat, corn and 

 other farm crops growing in the immediate vicinity. The same fact has 

 been observed by others repeatedly in Delaware, Maryland, and Michigan. 

 A. S. Dyckmau, one of the largest growers at South Haven, Mich., told me 

 that he had a sandy bluff the soil of which had been blown away to the depth 

 of 1 to 2 feet by the winds of Lake Michigan, so that nothing but the sandy 



