156 Pathologist U. S. Department of Agriculture 



the midst of this work, Scribner notified him that by March 1, he 

 would be expected to present 



a full report on the subject of your present investigations — Peach Yellows. 

 The length of time you were in the field will enable you to minutely, or, 

 at least sufficiently, characterize the disease upon all the organs of the 

 tree, and your microscopical examinations of healthy and diseased tissue 

 will enable you to describe the essential characters or changes which take 

 place in the latter. The characters indicating the effects of the disease 

 must be familiar to you now, and if you have thus far failed to discover 

 anything of a definite nature (or fail soon to do so) which may afford a 

 basis for an investigation, or a clue to the cause of the disease, continued 

 examinations of tissues appear to me to be a needless waste of time. 



Such chemical analyses as will show the difference in composition be- 

 tween the healthy and diseased tissues, will be made and the results 

 placed at your disposal. 



In your report you will observe the following sequence of topics: (1) 

 Historical. (2) Characters. (3) Losses-distribution and effects. (4) Con- 

 ditions favoring the disease. (5) Conclusions. 



It is hoped that your studies will enable you to suggest some rational 

 mode of treatm.ent, or, at least indicate what experiments may or may not 

 be tried with the view of preventing or curing the disease. 



Smith agreed to prepare this report with the understanding that 

 he be permitted to "make necessary additions or corrections at 

 any time during the remainder of the fiscal year." August 24, 

 1887, Garfield had offered to write to Commissioner of Agriculture 

 Colman and commend Smith's plan of work, arguing, if need be, 

 that Smith " be continued long enough to carry th[ rough his} 

 investigation to a finality." He told of a Michigan nurseryman 

 who had performed some "careful experiments," growing trees 

 from yellows pits and " budded diseased buds into healthy seed- 

 lings." Trees, he said, may develop "unmistakable signs of 

 yellows before arriving at puberty." T. T. Lyon, the nation-wide 

 known Michigan horticulturist, a scholar whose acquaintance 

 Smith had enjoyed before leaving Ionia, had imported trees from 

 Georgia that had developed yellows the same season they were 

 transplanted. 



September 5, 1887, Smith obtained from Dr. W. S. Maxwell of 

 Still Pond, Kent County, Maryland, permission to establish an 

 experimental orchard at the Point, a locality of rare beauty near 

 Chesapeake Bay. Two weeks later he received a letter from David 

 Pearce Penhallow, who, when botanist at Houghton Farm, New 



