FARMERS' INSTITUTES. 271 



THE YELLOWS. 



South Haven is entitled to the credit of first practicing Mr. Hale's 

 ninth commandment to pull up and burn every tree infested with yel- 

 lows. The people of South Haven were the first men to tell us we could 

 set another tree back in that place and grow it. • In our vicinity we were 

 ignorant of the yellows. You people here profited by the experience of 

 our county and Allegan. But there is now more or less negligence even 

 in this vicinity. I do not think that yellows trees are taken out promptly 

 enough by some people. I do not know just at what time a tree gives off 

 contagion to the next tree, but when taken out immediately and burned 

 there is no further contagion. That would indicate that you cannot 

 afford to take a moment's risk; consequently, the only safe way is to do 

 exactly as he says, "at the first sign pull up and burn." Then if your 

 orchard is not too old you can set another tree there next spring, with 

 perfect safety so far as the yellows are concerned. 



There is something that is worth mentioning here in connection with 

 the yellows. About a year ago one of the Wilson brothers at St. Joseph 

 came to me and said, *'Do you believe that Bordeaux mixture will pre- 

 vent yellows in the peach trees?" I said, "No, I do not." He says, "I 

 do." "What makes you believe it?" He told me that three or four years 

 ago he began spraying with Bordeaux mixture to prevent rotting 

 because some of our Agricultural College professors had given him the 

 idea that it would prevent peach rot. They had been having a little 

 yellows in the orchard, and he said from that day to this they had never 

 had a tree. "We have one other neighbor that does the same thing. He has 

 not had a tree diseased. We dose them the same time we do our grapes. 

 We keep them painted right straight through." It was a new proposition 

 to me, for I knew that our chemical experts say they have not been able 

 to get favorable results. At the Fennville Institute a few days ago, half 

 a dozen men said that when they had begun spraying with Bordeaux they 

 noticed a decrease in yellows. That seemed a little corroborative, and 

 since then I have questioned every man that was in the habit of spraying 

 I>each trees, and I find that a number of men have that idea and think 

 there may be something in it. The evidence certainly looks that way. 

 The Bordeaux treatment is certainly all right for curl leaf, wherever 

 they have gone at it according to the Experiment Station bulletins, and it 

 mav be a wonderful check on vellows. 



THINNING AGAIN. 



It takes a good deal of nerve to thin the peaches down right. We go 

 in and take off peaches until they are four inches apart, and they look 

 pretty for apart. But the next year it takes a good deal more nerve to 

 go into it again. So it becomes a very difficult matter to thin down right, 

 but those who have done this have the most money to show for their 

 crops. Keep them so far apart that you cannot touch one peach with 

 your finger and the other with the thumb. It is pretty hard to do it, but 

 it is absolutelv essential that it should be done. 



