274 • STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



fluence of legislation," and need only be mentioned here. Of the fact itself 

 I think there can be no doubt. 



(2) Yellows has appeared in this region on productive virgin soil, i. e., on 

 land cleared on the original forest within less than a decade, and never ex- 

 hausted by cropping. This statement is so important that I have been at 

 great pains to verify it, by extensive correspondence, and later by a visit to 

 the region. There seems to be no doubt whatever about it. 



(3) Healthy trees can be grown without lapse of time and without fertilizers 

 in the places previously occupied by djseased ones. In this region it is the 

 custom, and has been for ten years or more, to set peach trees in the place of 

 those dug out on account of yellows, and these resets are not more liable to 

 the disease than other trees in the orchard. In fact, from many reliable peach 

 growers in southwestern Michigan I have received straightforward independent 

 testimony showing that trees set in place of those unmistakably diseased by 

 yellows have come to maturity and borne healthy fruit, and are now healthy. 

 Such a state of affairs could not possibly exist, not generally, if soil exhaustion 

 were the cause of yellows or one of the necessary factors in its production. 



Granted this fact alone and it would seem that the theory of poverty of soil 

 must necessarily fall to the ground, for if one tree has exhausted the soil so as 

 to become diseased how can another tree be set immediately in the same place 

 and come to a healthy maturity? So important is this matter that I desire 

 to introduce abstracts from some of the more important statements received. 



On March 24, 1888, and again April 9 and 16. 1 sent the following question, 

 or modified forms of it, to peach growers in southwestern Michigan. 



QUESTION. 



In your experience have you ever succeeded in growing healthy peaches 

 from trees set in the place of those dug out on account of unmistakable yel- 

 lows ; /. e., set in place of trees which bore the premature red-spotted fruit, 

 or the starved wiry branches, or both? If you have done so, when was it and 

 under what circumstances, and how long did the trees remain healthy? 



To these questions I received the following replies: 



ANSWERS. 



South Haven, Mich., March 26, 1SS8. 



1. I have little personal experience bearing upon the question of soil-starvation as a 

 cause of yellows, and I have never planted a tree in place of one diseased; but this has 

 been done to a considerable extent in orchards here, and I have not heard of disease 

 traceable to this cause.— T. T. Lyon. 



South Haven, Mich., April 2, 18S8. 



2. I have taken up peach trees that had the yellows, and reset in the same places, and 

 have picked peaches from said trees two years and they are perfectly healthy yet. — D. 

 C. Leisening. 



Fennville, Mich., AjMl 11, 1S88. 



3. I have done so successftiUy. I planted an orchard on new ground, and out of that 

 orchard one year I cut twenty trees, adjoining, all of wliich had UJimisfakable yellows 

 — wliicli showed spotted truit and wiry fungus growth. The trees planted in the places 

 of those taken out have borne nf>thing buttlie best of fruit, showing no signs of yellows, 

 and are still bearing. — J. P. Wade. 



In response to a letter asking for more explicit information on certain 

 points Mr. Wade replied again, under date of April 16, as follows: 



