Recent Studies on Peach Yellows and Little Peach 31 



results in early fruit-bud formation and early falling of the foliage. 

 A girdled branch or tree is readily recognized by the tendency of the 

 foliage to lose its flexibility and for the leaves to roll inward from 

 the margins toward the midribs, as illustrated in figure 17. The 

 margins of the leaves frequently become reddish in color, and the 

 leaves themselves may become a lighter green in color. Rather weak, 



Fig. 19 — A Normal J. H. Hale Peach Surrounded by Buttons 

 sickly appearing shoots or suckers occasionally develop on a peach 

 tree below the point of girdling. These symptoms are practically the 

 same as those due to yellows. 



Further Details of Weather Injuries 

 Winter injury to the wood of peach branches and twigs may bring 

 about results identical with artificial girdling, or in other words, 

 cause abnormal size and early maturity of the fruit. The opposite 

 effect also may occur; that is, the fruit may remain small and cling to 

 the tree after the normal fruit has ripened, exactly like the "buttons" 

 specimens on the J. H. Hale shown above in figure 19. Observa- 

 tions seemed to indicate that the injury in such cases occurred 

 either in the stem of the peach itself or in the twig near the point of 



