80 THE KANSAS PEACH. 



NEW PEACH-TREE DISEASE. 



In the Michigan Fruit-grower, Mr. Gardner Avery has the follow- 

 ing article regarding a new j^each-tree disease, which has aj^peared in 

 some of the orchards of Michigan : 



I saw in a recent issue, in the report of the Lowell horticultural 

 meeting, that S. E. Tucker exhibited some new growth of peach trees 

 tint had dead sjjots in the bark. 



I have never seen anything in your j)aper or any other that treated 

 on this subject. I know something of this disease, and I feel that it 

 is a subject which ought to be discussed, and that thoroughly, too. 

 I know nothing of this disease scientifically, but experimentally, I am 

 sorry to sa}^ I know more than I wish I did about it. 



It is worse than the yellows and the San Jose scale combined, for 

 it spreads faster and leaves none unaffected. We are taking out a 

 block of 1500 trees, nine years old this spring, that are nearly dead at 

 this writing. The disease commenced the second year after setting, 

 in Barnard variety, which has been affected more severely than the 

 other varieties, with the Chilis as a close second. The Smock seems 

 to be mostly proof against the disease. 



I have tried to find the name, cause, and remedy, but have made a 

 failure thus far. Mr. Morrill thought the cause was climatic, and I 

 see that Mr. Tucker has also been inclined to think it was climatic, 

 but changes his mind since we have had no severe weather the last 

 winter. Mr. Sneathen is inclined to think that it is a fungous disease, 

 and he says that others think it is caused by barn-yard manure. Now, 

 my trees are ruined, and I have never applied barn-yard manure to 

 nearly all of my orchard, and those that had manure applied to them 

 are no different from the rest. In this belt of peach country there are 

 a few orchards that are not affected, but they are isolated ones. 



This proves two things : First, that the disease spreads from tree 

 to tree ; second, that it is not caused by rigorous weather, or they 

 would all be alike, under like conditions ; whereas some of the orchards 

 on the lowest ground have escaped, while orchards on the higher sites 

 are nearly dead. Generally, those oh clay are worse than those on 

 sand, but when it gets in they all go sooner or later. 



Dry weather is a healer while wet weather is a deadener to the 

 trees. I am inclined to think that we would not have gotten very much 

 from our trees that we are taking out if it had not been for the drought 

 three years since ; this kept the disease in check, so that we harvested 

 a good crop. 



All of the above points to a fungus as the cause ; and we have had 



