162 Pathologist U. S. Department of Agriculture 



requested the Department of Agriculture to send H. E. Van 

 Deman, noted horticulturist, or Smith, and both men if possible, 

 to attend a meeting of the Peninsula Horticultural Society to 

 be held at Dover on January 11, 18S8. In a letter to Smith of 

 December 26, 1887, he asked: 



How are you coming on with microscopic investigations of Peach 

 Yellows? Have you yet seen the supposed bacterium that by excessive 

 multiplication turns this delicate tree to such a sickly hue, and fills our 

 Delaware peach growers wiih consternation dire? ... If you have come 

 to any definite conclusion and we can have the full benefit of your work 

 so far we shall be very glad to pay your expenses. ... Dr. Maxwell will 

 be here with a long paper on Pears. . . . 



On January 22, 1891, at Easton, Maryland, Smith would address 

 the Society on " Peach Yellows," '" present his conclusions as to 

 the contagious nature of the disease, and announce that that year 

 Bulletin 1 of the Division of Vegetable Pathology would fully 

 treat the subject of its communicability. He described his inocu- 

 lation and excision experiments 1887-1888 and his reasons for 

 recommending legislation and " the ax and the fire-band " to check 

 the disease's spread. " In answer to a question," he said, " I have 

 isolated several organisms from the diseased tissues, but I am not 

 yet able to say whether any one of these is the cause of the 

 disease. This part of my investigation is not yet completed. . . ." 

 Webb invited Smith to attend the Chestertown meeting of the 

 Society January 28-30, 1890, and tell his " story about the fungus 

 that causes the [peach] rot." 



In 1887 Smith had recommended that " the leaf curl, the rot, 

 and some other known parasitic and seriously injurious diseases 

 of the peach should receive attention " as a part of his investiga- 

 tion. Since 1888, however, many growers on the peninsula volun- 

 tarily had begun digging up their orchards on account of the 

 yellows, and at a meeting of the horticultural society a committee 

 had been appointed to secure passage of a law in Delaware and 

 Maryland to compel all orchard owners to destroy diseased trees. 

 In January, 1888, Webb again asked Smith whether he had found 

 bacteria in the diseased wood. On February 12 Dr. Maxwell told 

 him that he believed that the disease was caused by bacteria. 

 Smith refused to " make statements, until [he had] verified them 



" TraKS. Peninsula Hort. Soc. 4: 55-61, and reprint. 



