282 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



so many times as to make it improbable that all of them grew from chance 

 healthy pits. 



Nevertheless, from iny own experiments, I think it is certain that a great 

 part of the premature frnit will not produce seedliugs. In the autumn of 

 1887 I carefully selected the pits of 2,070 premature peaches. Thomas J. 

 Shallcross, of Locust Grove, Md., and Smith & Brother, of McAllisterville, 

 Pa., also collected for me, making a total of 3,10-i. These pits were sent in 

 small lots to trustworthy persons to determine what jjer cent, would develop 

 into diseased trees. Most of these pits were planted out in the fall, as in 

 ordinary nursery culture. 



Prof. Smith gives in tabular form the result of experiments with these pits, 

 sent to fifteen persons in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware. In one case 

 only 5 out of 357 grew ; in another, 8 out of 175 ; in a third, 2 out of 525, all 

 of these 15 producing apparently healthy young trees. In each of the other 

 eleven cases not a single pit germinated. 



Mr. Smith resumes: 



My own collections and transmissions were made with the utmost care, so 

 that no mistake might occur. None but premature, red-spotted peaches were 

 gathered, and in most instances these were of normal size, and from trees 

 which manifested no symptoms of disease till 1887. The collections by Mr. 

 Shallcross aud Smith & Brother were from young trees recently diseased, and 

 were made, I believe, very carefully. It seemed, therefore, that these pits 

 must be in the best condition for growing. The results show that only about 

 five-tenths of 1 per cent grew. Of my own collecting only two grew, i. e., 

 less than 1 in 1,000. Judging from these experiments a majority of prema- 

 ture peach pits will not grow. I also infer this from the fact that many which 

 I have cracked and examined, especially those from trees diseased more than 

 one season, either contained no kernel, or one with a dead embryo. If this 

 holds good for all localities and seasons, then one supposed source of danger 

 is greatly lessened. However, it will not do to base a sweeping conclusion on 

 the experiments of a single year. They should be repeated several seasons on 

 a large scale. 



It is also possible that enfeebled seedlings may grow from peaches borne on 

 the yet apparently undiseased portions of affected trees. No experiments 

 have been made to determine this point, but in the present state of our 

 knowledge it is certainly wisdom to procure pits from uninfected districts or 

 at least from orchards containing no diseased trees. In this way one possible 

 source of danger will be avoided. Many nurserymen now procure seed for 

 nursery stock from infected districts. In such cases there is always a liability 

 of getting pits from d'seased trees, even when the greatest care is used, and 

 this liability is largely increased when the seed is bought indiscriminately 

 from dry-houses and canning establishments, with no previous inspection of 

 the fruit. There can, I think, be little doubt that a majority of the diseased 

 orchards in New Jersey, Maryland and Delaware were budded on seedlings 

 grown from pits collected in districts where yellows prevailed. I know this 

 to be true of many orchards. A portion of even the so-called '' natural " 

 or *• Tennessee" seed is grown on the Delaware and Chesapeake Peninsula 

 and fraudulently sold to nurserymen for the genuine article. Sometimes this 

 spurious .seed is shipjied to Tennessee and then reshipped to points farther 

 north ; sometimes it never gets any farther south than Philadelphia or Balti- 

 more. I have this information from several reliable sources. I do not know 



