Plachd on a Nation-widh Basis 205 



Dr. Spaldin£j at the University of Michigan, had pursued special 

 work in cntomolo<:v at Harvard. Smitli wrote: 



Pierce, our special at^cnt at work on the California vine disease, has 

 come back Irom six months in the vineyards of Mediterranean hurope and 

 Africa — full of new tacts and interesting observations. Ihere was no 

 money available for investii;ation in foreign countries. So he \xud his 

 own expenses. He is now writing a preliminary report upon the California 

 disease. Until conversation with him this winter I had really a very 

 inadequate notion of its extent and destructiveness. It is worse even than 

 peach yellows in Delaware. 



He, while at Naples, Italy, and Palermo, Sicily, had written to 

 Smith. Much he told of the agricultural practices of the regions 

 he had visited, even the practices reminiscent of those of the 

 ancients and still in vogue. Probably Pierce remembered Smith's 

 review °° of Felix von Thiimen's monograph, "Die Pilze des 

 Aprikosenbaumes [Anneniaca vulgaris. Lam.)," recollecting that 

 Smith had pointed out the treatise's importance to the apricot 

 industry of California, For, wrote Pierce: 



Peach trees look well in Italy but, so far as my observations have 

 extended, are badly blighted by leaf-curl in France. The fruit is just 

 now coming into market here — probably from regions to the south of 

 Naples. Apricots are in the market constantly, but thus far will not 

 average up with southern California apricots. No peach yellows has been 

 seen, and I have been constantly on the lookout for it on your account. To 

 my mind, peach-curl does much more harm to the tree than people are in 

 the habit of thinking (?) Does not gummosis of the peach follow this 

 trouble .-' 



I have had some decided compliments for your work on peach yellows — 

 please accept. 



Cavara and Briosi are the best men met thus far in Italy — they are at 

 Pavia — and I spoke to them of our work. . . . 



Thus far I have covered the leading vine regions of France and Italy, 

 have the situation very wx-U in hand as regards distribution of vines and 

 methods of culture, as well as much information relative to diseases. I 

 am not ready to speak yet relative to Mai Nero and our disease. First the 

 work in this Province and then of Catania in Sicily — the latter place being 

 where the disease did its worst work years since. . . . 



A letter, written by Pierce at Rome, Italy, evidently has been 

 lost. After he had been at Catania, however, he sent his letter 

 from Palermo: 



*°Jour. Mycology 5 (4): 222-223, Dec. 1889. 



