AND HORTICULTURIST. 



EDITORIAL NOTES. 



A New " Yellows " Disease in the Peach. — 

 English journals have a good deal to say about a 

 new disease which has recently broken out among 

 peaches, and which they call " the yellows." As 

 it has always been stated that what Americans call 

 " the yellows " does not exist in England, it may 

 be as well to note here that what they now call by 

 this name is not the American disease. It is thus 

 described in the London Journal of Horticulture : 

 "The trees were afflicted in many instances with 

 the ' yellows' — that is to say, the points of the 

 young growths were yellow instead of a dark 

 healthy green color. This may be thought a rather 

 singular name for a complaint, but those who are 

 acquainted with the symptoms know the crops 

 obtained from such trees are of comparatively little 

 value till these same ' yellows' are prevented. The 

 trees when in this condition! unless too far gone, 

 flower freely and set good crops of fruit, which 

 appear to stone well, but the majority drop when 

 apparently near perfection." 



In order to prevent confusion it will be best to 

 call their trouble " English yellows" when we are 

 referring to it. 



Peach Yellows Law of Michkjan.— Mr. T. T. 

 Lyon supplies the following piece of history : "A 

 previous Legislature had enacted a ' Yellows Law' 

 applicable only to the counties of Van Biiren, 

 Allegan and Ottawa ; and difficulty arising from 

 its non-applicability to other adjoining localities, 

 and from the alleged insufficiency of some of its 

 provisions, a movement was in progress to modify 

 this law and make it general throughout the State. 

 The State Pomological Society was appealed to, 

 at the annual meeting in December, 1877, at Paw 

 Paw, to perfect a draft of the proposed law, and to 

 bring it before the Legislature with its endorse- 

 ment. It was after the discussion of the motion 

 to refer this matter to a special committee, that 

 Hon. N. H. Bitely, of Lawton, read an abstract of 

 the facts elicited during the discussion, in which he 

 stated it to be his conclusion that it seems inevitable 

 nothing but a stringent law for the destruction 

 of the diseased trees, applicable to the whole State, 

 diligently and energetically enforced, will prevent 

 the loss of every peach tree in the State. Without 

 such a law we may bid a long farewell to this most 

 luscious fruit which has so long been both a source 

 of pride and revenue to the State of Michigan. 

 With such a law, so enforced, the future of the 

 peach will be more hopeful. Mr. Lyon adds that 



this can only be taken as the conclusion of Mr. 

 Bitely. We are confident, however, that it ex- 

 pressed (perhaps not in a sufficiently guarded man- 

 ner) the dominant feehng of those in attendance, 

 that the proposed application of the law respecting 

 nuisances to this disease, was legitimate and 

 proper ; and that, if we would escape the calamity 

 that had already nearly or quite ruined the peach 

 plantations of an entire county of our ' fruit belt,' 

 prompt and earnest action must be had." 



Earliest Peaches in Texas. — T. V. Munson 

 says Musser and Ashby are the earliest. These 

 are followed by Baker and Alexander, Wilder and 

 Excelsior following. 



Japan Persimmon in the South. — It is now 

 some six or seven years since the Japan Persim- 

 mon was- first introduced into Mobile by distribu- 

 tions made by the L'nited States Commissioner of 

 Agriculture. It has fruited three or four years in 

 succession in the vicinity of Mobile and Pensacola, 

 and found to do well there. Mr. Delchamps has 

 a flourishing orchard in the lower part of the 

 county, and Mr. Langdon has another in the upper 

 J part. Mr. D., who is perhaps the pioneer, in 

 experimenting with this new fruit, says that he has 

 three hundred trees, all doing well, and Mr. L. has 

 about one-third as many — his orchard including 

 no less than thirteen varieties, namely, Tanenashi, 

 Hiakume, Nihon, Hatsiga, Yamato, Kurokuma, 

 Royal, Daidaimara, Mikado, Gosho, Goshomara, 

 Imperial and Mino. 



H.\RDY Apples in Ohio. — Judge Cheney, of 



i Winchester, says that the most hardy are the 



Roman Stem, White Winter, Pearmain and Milam. 



American Peaches in Europe. — We reprint 

 from the London Garden the following letter of a 

 French correspondent, which we are sure will be 

 read with much interest by American peach 

 growers : 



! "M. Raymond Aurrau, the proprietor of this 

 estate, who, for his remarkably successful cultiva- 

 tion (especially of American vines), has just ob- 

 tained the prize of honor at an exhibition at Dra- 

 guignan, was one of the first to plant on a large 

 scale that remarkably early peach, Amsden's June, 

 of which some thousands of young trees have been 

 imported from the Linited States. In the spring of 

 1879, a hundred trees were planted at Dt-capris on 

 the same piece of ground in which a number of 

 Jacquez vines were at the same time planted. In 

 the rich and deep soil of Decapris the Jacquez 

 vine makes the most luxuriant growth, but th 

 growth and development of Amsden's June pea/1i 

 on the same soil is quite extraordinary. PlatTted 

 three years ago, as one year's grafts of ordinary 



