THE PEACHES OF NEW YORK I7I 



may even be communicated by pits from affected trees. That it must be 

 caused or transmitted in still other ways is apparent to all who have had 

 experience with the disease. It seems not, however, to linger in the soil, 

 for trees may be set in the very spots from whence diseased plants have been 

 removed without danger to the newcomer. " War to the knife and the 

 knife to the hilt" — absolute extermination, root and branch, by ax 

 and fire, is the only known method of subduing yellows. 



Little-peach is possibly a variant of peach-yellows or, at least, is very 

 similar in nature. It seems to have been described first in Michigan in the 

 early nineties of the last century but had attacked orchards in New York 

 before that time so that it is now impossible to say where it first appeared. 

 Be that as it may, the disease is not now the exclusive possession of either 

 state but in the twenty years of its history has become as widely distributed 

 as yellows, covering about the same territory, and seems now to be equally 

 destructive. Outwardly the disease differs from yellows chiefly: (i) In 

 delayed rather than premature ripening of the under-sized fruits of little- 

 peach; (2) the leaves usually show more green than in yellows and show a 

 decided tendency to droop or roll; (3) little-peach, as a rule, appears later 

 in the season than yellows; (4) the characteristic, sickly, wiry shoots of 

 yellows are seldom present in little-peach. Little-peach is kept at bay, 

 as in yellows, by extermination of affected trees. 



Rosette, though distinct in most of its symptoms from yellows and 

 little-peach, is clearly similar in nature, is just as virtilent and contagious, 

 is communicated in the same ways and requires the same treatment. On 

 trees affected with rosette the fruits shrivel and drop and tufts or rosettes 

 of leaves develop freely. Rosette is not found in New York nor north 

 of the Potomac and hence is of but passing interest to peach-growers in 

 this State. 



Brown-rot {Sclerotinia fructigena (Persoon) Schroeter), known also 

 as fruit-mold and ripe-rot, attacks flowers and shoots of the peach, but is 

 most conspicuous on the ripe or ripening fruits. Here its presence is 

 quickly detected by a dark discoloration of the skin which is afterwards 

 partly or whoUy covered with pustule-like aggregations of gray spores. 

 The decayed fruits fall to the ground or more often hang to the tree, 

 becoming shriveled mummies, each mummy being a storehouse of fungus 

 threads and spores from which infestation spreads to the next crop. The 

 rot spreads with surprising rapidity on the fruits in warm, damp weather 

 either before the fruit is picked or in baskets while being shipped or stored. 



