232 .lOURXAL OF ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY [Vol. 3 



have been assigned to such a cause as the peach is especially sensitive 

 to cold. In cases of collar-girdling, root-rot, stag-head, poor growth 

 and yellow foliage, one should look for the darkened wood due to 

 severe cold which may kill it up to the cambium without destroying 

 the latter. A great deal of trouble of various character at the base 

 of the tree may be due to cold. In a large number of cases, which I 

 saw several years ago in Maryland and similar instances mentioned 

 by Clinton in Connecticut, the root, or the bark at the base of the 

 stem seems to be injured while the top is left in fairly healthful con- 

 dition. Whether we are right in attributing this to winter injury I 

 am not certain. In some low land near sea level, I had thought that 

 salt water overflow might have been the cause, but the Delaware 

 Experiment Station reports benefit from such a case (1895) rather 

 than injury. 



I have noticed in Maryland associated with these basal injuries, an 

 abundant fungous growth resembling the Cytospora noted by Stewart 

 as occurring with dead or dying peach in New^ York, and causing 

 white flattened shot like bodies under pimples. Its parasitism has not 

 been determined. 



Frost-crack, body-blight or sunscald seems to be due mostly to ex- 

 tremes of temperature in late winter and spring. Trees making 

 vigorous growth are said to be injured less than old or young trees, 

 and freeze more easily than the middle aged. 



Failure of Young Trees 



Young trees when set often refuse to grow. Some of this may be 

 due to methods of planting or soil conditions. But I attribute a great 

 deal of it to drying or freezing of the root during the winter storage, in 

 shipping or while planting. Warren has made some tests in New 

 Jersey of the effect of exposure of different duration and found that 

 roots exposed to evaporation for one hour were severely injured. 



In speaking of storage troubles, I may mention the fatal fungous 

 trouble (species not identified) found in New York in 1900 where 

 sand was thrown over the stock in the cellar. 



Dwarfing and poor grow^th or early failure may result from graft- 

 ing upon plum or other stocks that are soon grown over by the more 

 vigorous peach. 



A yet unexplained condition found to be causing much loss in 

 several Maryland orchards the past year, in which the base of the 

 stem is swollen, soft and cracked and the main lateral roots are cut 

 off by a regular abscission layer, may be due to partial drying out of 

 the root. 



