PEACH YELLOWS. 295 



seems to me it could be entirely prevented by budding the peach upon the 

 roots of trees not subject to this disease, c. g., the plum. If, on the contrary, 

 it is due to some parasite living above ground and attacking the tree through 

 its branches, trunk, foliage, or flowers, then trees budded on plum it)ots 

 should be as much subject to it as any others. 



I have seen some statements to the effect that budding on plum stocks is 

 no protection against yellows; but, having found many errors in the litera- 

 ture of yellows, I am inclinei to take all statements with a grain of allow- 

 ance. The fjrst person to make this statement appears to have been William 

 Prince. He declares thai while peach trees budded on plum and almond 

 are less affected by borers, they are equally subject to yellows. 



The most explicit statement is that made by Noyes Darling. He says that 

 in 1842 Benjamin Sillman, jr., of New Haven, "procured from Liverpool a 

 considerable number of young peach and nectarine trees budded on plum 

 stocks. Some of them were put for standards, and others walled upon a 

 board fence. There, had been no peach trees for twenty years on the ground 

 where these were planted. They grew well the first season and appeared in 

 perfect health. The second season some of the peach trees showed symptoms 

 of yellows, and died the third season. At the present time [four years after 

 they were setj no one of the trees, either nectarine or peach, is free from dis- 

 ease. In the garden adjoining that of Mr. Sillman there were diseased 

 trees standing at the time the imported trees were planted out." 



1 believe Mr. Darling's own observations to be perfectly trustworthy. The 

 only points here in doubt would appear to be (1) the nature of the inserted 

 buds, presumably unexceptional, because from England, where yellows is said 

 to be unknown; and (2) the nature of the stocks, presumably plum, as stated, 

 from the fact that in England the peach is very commonly budded on the 

 plum. 



Charles Downing also states that many years ago one of his friends im- 

 ported 100 peach trees from France. "In two years one-third had the yel- 

 lows, and the remainder died with it the third or fourth year." These trees 

 were probably on plum stocks, but no date is given and no name, and it is 

 possible that Mr. Downing ha 3 in mind the trees imported by Mr. Sillman. 



I have found one or two additional references to the occurrence of yellows 

 in peaches budded on plum stocks. The most important is a statement in 

 the Annual Report of the Secretary of the Michigan State Pomological 

 Society, 1874, page 26, to the effect that "in the orchard of John T. Edwards 

 diseased peach trees grafted on plum stocks were entirely destroyed by the 

 yellows without injuring the root at all; below the graft the live healthy root 

 sent out strong plum stocks." I have tried to discover Mr. Edwards and 

 hunt down this statement, but have not been able to do so. 



An eastern Maryland correspondent of The American Farmer, 1875, page 

 25, also states that plums, when grafted on peach roots, remain free from dis- 

 ease, although standing within a foot of peach trees which die of yellows. 



Peach trees where 1 have traveled are budded almost exclusively upon 

 peach stocks, and I have not been able to confirm any of these statements. 

 One thousand plum stocks have, however, been inoculated with healthy peach 

 buds in a district now free from yellows, and these will be set in sdme of the 

 badly-diseased orchards in Maryland and Delaware and the results carefully 

 recorded. The trees from which the buds were taken have also been marked, 

 and will be kept under observation for a number of years, so that if any of 



