176 Pathologist U. S. Department of Agriculture 



treatment." ^^ Professor Penhallow and Professor Maynard had 

 neither searched for, nor found, proof of contagion in this 

 disease.^*^ On the other hand, Smith's bulletin I of the Division 

 of Vegetable Pathology, published in 1891," "Additional evi- 

 dence on the communicability of peach yellows and peach rosette," 

 had " v/ell-established [the] contagious nature of" peach yellows. 

 There remained the "middle ground" which Smith claimed was 

 now Goessmann's: " believing that whatever be the cause of 

 Yellows, [they could] enable Peach trees to resist it by giving them 

 a sufficient quantity of [plant] food." This Smith dealt with in 

 several papers: " On the value of wood ashes in the treatment of 

 peach yellows," ^^ presented at the forty-first meeting of the 

 American Association for the Advancement of Science; several 

 articles of lesser value; ^^ and his important Bulletin 4, "Experi- 

 ments with fertilizers for the prevention and cure of peach yellows, 

 1889-1892." 



Apparently by 1888 he was convinced that his inoculations had 

 demonstrated the communicability of peach yellows. He seems to 

 have been convinced that the disease is of parasitic origin. But 

 his utterances on these and other points were made with scientific 

 caution, and he urged the necessity of further research. Months 

 had been spent readmg the best available literature, sending out 

 inquiries, and visiting peach orchard regions to consult with owners 

 and nurserymen to get their opinions as to the nature of the 

 malady, its behavior, methods of control, et cetera. Often he 

 travelled from orchard to orchard in a buggy or by wagon. His 

 letters of inquiry went as far west as Kansas and as far south as 

 Georgia. 



During the summer of 1887, he began to correspond with J. D. 

 Husted, president of the Middle Georgia Horticultural Society 

 and owner of the Midland Fruit Farm at Vineyard, Spalding 

 County. Their letters dealt mostly with peach diseases — leaf 



^^ Proc. Amer. Fomol. Soc. 23: 21-26, 1891. Also a reprint, from which the 

 quotations have been taken, 16 pages, at pp. 14 for Smith's conclusions and 4 for 

 Smith's consideration of Penhallow's, Maynard's, and Goessmann's theories with 

 reference to contagion and the remedy therefor. 



«" Ibid, 4. 



*' 65 pp., 38 plates, U. S. Dep't Agric. 



^^ Proc. Amer. Assoc. Adv. Sci. 4l: 224-225, 1892. Abstract of paper presented 

 at Rochester, New York, August, 1892. 



^" For instance, What to do for peach yellows, Jour, of Mycology 6 (1): 15-16. 



