April, '10] INSPECTORS' DISCUSSION 245 



Professor Scot at one time was of the opinion that the yellows 

 would not spread in the far South, and for a great many years some 

 of the growers carried stock from the East down into Georgia, but 

 we have never found a single case of yellows. 



Mr. Surface: I would like to call attention to an article by G. P. 

 Clinton in the Connecticut Pomological Annual Report for last Feb- 

 ruary, in which he discussed peach yellows, and brings out most im- 

 portant facts. I would suggest that we cite these references, as 

 oftentimes a man is too busy to read eveiy^ article m the magazines, 

 and that would be the best way to keep in touch w^ith what is going on. 



Professor Taft : Our experience in Michigan does not give us rea- 

 son to think that the disease is to any great extent influenced by cli- 

 matic conditions except that the disease generally seems to be most 

 virulent, or the trees are perhaps more subject to attack, when they 

 have been weakened by a severe winter or other unfavorable cli- 

 matic conditions. The disease itself is unquestionably of a con- 

 tagious nature for although peaches are grown quite extensively in 

 thirty or forty of the IMichigan counties, yellows was for the first ten 

 years after its appearance in IMichigan confined to a single county al- 

 though the conditions there w^ere not unlike many of the others. 



From this county of Berrien, which is in the southwest part of the 

 state, the disease spread gradually to the north and east but in forty 

 years has not advanced more than 100 miles. 



Had there been much danger of the spreading of the disease 

 through nursery stock, it would have unquestionably broken out in 

 every county in which peaches are grown but the fact is that it is un- 

 known in fully one half the counties of the state and, at the end of 

 twenty years after it was first noticed, it had not appeared in more 

 than a half dozen counties. 



Mr. Hitchings: In Maine, we have had to do away with the 

 climatic theory maintained in the Connecticut article. "We have had 

 for the last few years a great increase of yellows, and the point of the 

 argument is : "Is not this influenced by climatic conditions ? ' ' 



It has been the feeling among mam^ of our inspectors that the dis- 

 cussion of this article has been inclined to prove that the yellows was 

 due to climatic conditions. The results, however, do not agree with 

 some of the pre^nous work done by Irwin F. Smith. 



A Member: Two years ago some fruit trees which were infected 

 with this disease bore premature fruit and this year they bore perfect 

 fruit. 



Professor Taft : I have seen premature fruit which was rather 



