Fungous Disi;asiis or Plants, Piiach ^'illows 157 



York, and while at tlic Massachusetts Agricultural College and 

 experiment station at Amherst, claimed, with Dr. Cjoessmann, to 

 have discovered a cure for peach yellows. In fact, he told Smith 

 that at Amherst he would find " the original trees experimented 

 upon and cured." 



Goessmann, it will be remembered, had read a paper in 1882 

 before the third meeting of the Societ)' for the Promotion of 

 Agricultural Science, "Observations regarding the Yellows of the 

 Peach," in which was projected a theory of a physiological dis- 

 order, a nutritional disturbance, induced by poverty of soil, some 

 lack of essential 'elements of plant food, or some injurious soil 

 substance. Samuel T. Maynard, Goessmann, and Penhallow had 

 participated in the research. The last named was a graduate of 

 Massachusetts Agricultural College. For a while after his gradu- 

 ation in 1873, he had studied in Japan, returned from there in 

 1880, worked for a brief time at the Gray Herbarium of Harvard, 

 was employed as botanist and chemist at Houghton Farm, and 

 then in 1883 went to McGill University where during many years 

 as professor of botany he took a prominent part in the scientific 

 research leadership of Canada, achieving renown as a paleobotanist 

 and plant physiologist. 



During the summer of 1882 Goessmann had recalled him to 

 Amherst " to study the condition of the cellular tissues in branches 

 collected on the 11th of November, 1881, from trees thoroughly 

 diseased, and also from trees which were once diseased," but by 

 the time of Goessmann's address in August, 1882, were "in 

 good healthy condition." Goessmann himself chemically analyzed 

 mineral constituents of both branches and healthy and prematurely 

 ripened peach fruit. The theory of elaborating first causes 

 prior to fungous infestation attacted Smith's interest. To procure 

 pamphlets published by Penhallow while at Houghton Farm and 

 the results of his and Goessmann's analyses, Smith, on August l6, 

 1887, v/rote to Penhallow who replied six days later: 



The methods of analysis employed by us were the same as would be 

 employed by any i;ocd chemist and vegetable histologist. If you instruct 

 the Department Chemist that you want certain elements determined in the 

 wood, he will be sure to give you an analysis that will compare with those 

 published by us and by others. Ihe elements you enumerate are those 

 which should be determined; others would be of little or no value. I 

 would suggest that you will find a soil analysis, however accurately made. 



