January, tgti 



THE CANADIAN HORTICULTURIST 



I 



The Little Peach Disease 



L CuMT, B.S.A., O.A.C., Goelph, Oat. 



During a recent trip to the peach dis- 

 tricts of Michigan to investigate the dis- 

 ease known as Little Peach the wiiter 

 gained the following information : 



Little Peach is a very destructive dis- 

 ease ; and in the opinion of the majority 

 of Michigan growers is se\eral times more 

 destructive than Peach Yellows. Wher- 

 ever affected trees have been allowed to 

 remain the whole orchard, as a rule, has 

 hecome hopelessly diseased in four or five 

 years. An expert grower stated that he 

 had himself seen more than loo orchards 

 thus destroyed. 



So far as known, no variety of peach 

 tree is exempt. Japanese plums are sub- 

 ject to the disease. The writer saw three 

 plum orchards with several of the trees 

 attacked by Little Peach. 



Little Peach attacks trees from two 

 years of age upwards. (This is also true 

 of Yellows.) The disease has been suc- 

 cessfully controlled in Michigan and oth- 

 er places, but only by the removal each 

 year, as soon as possible, of all clearly 

 diseased trees and also all suspected ones. 

 It is absolutely necessary to remove the 

 suspicious cases as well as the clearly 

 diseased. Co-operation in control meas- 

 ures is necessary, and, where orchards are 

 close together as in Ontario peach dis- 

 tricts, is imperative. No person can thor- 

 oughly control the disease in his own 

 orchard by the removal of diseased trees 

 if his neighbor only a few rods away fails 

 to remove his. If, however, the orchards 

 are half a mile or more apart one may 

 hope to be able to keep his own orchard 

 fairly free from the disease even inde- 

 pendent of his neighbors. Where trees 

 have been removed because of the dis- 

 ease young trees may, if desired, be set 

 in the same place next spring. Such trees 

 are not any more subject to Little Peach 

 and Yellows than anv other trees in the 

 orchard. (Prof. Waite of Washington. 

 D. C. .Prof. Blake of New Jersey, and 

 se\eral others agree with this statement.) 



CAUSE UNKNOWN 



The cause of Little Peach (or of Yel- 

 lows) is not yet discovered. It is not 

 definitely known in how many ways the 

 di.sease may be spread. It is probably first 

 brought into a district on nursery stock 

 and once in the orchard it spreads from 

 one tree to another, but just how no one 

 knows. Many think that the time of in- 

 fection is during the blossoming sea.son. 



The disease can be propagated by bud- 

 ding, as has been proven by Dr. Smith 

 and Prof. Waite in the case of Yellows. 

 Mr. Horace Welch, who is said to be the 

 best expert on the disease in the State, 

 took more than 200 buds from trees 

 showing s_ymptoms of Little Peach, and 

 inserted some in young seedlings and 

 others in healthy trees, but in every case 

 the disease developed, but not until the 



second year, and in some cases the third 

 year. 



Whether the pits from -Little Peach 

 will grow and produce the disease is not 

 yet proven. (Prof. Philips of Virginia, 

 believes a small percentage of them will 

 do so.) The ordinary system of inspec- 

 tion for Yellows (as practised in Ontario) 

 is not sufficient for Little feach, as this 

 disease often does not show in trees un- 

 til the latter part of September. There- 

 fore, inspection work should continue up 

 to the coloring of the leaves by frost. It 

 is not an infrequent occurrence to find 

 trees with all the symptoms of Little 

 Peach except that the fruit ripens some- 

 what prematurely or at latest at the nor- 

 mal time. Such fruit shows no sign of 



Yellows. This is possibly an abnormal 

 case of Little Peach and Yellows attack- 

 ing the tree at the same time. Whatever 

 be the cause these trees must be destroyed 

 just as if they had typical Little Peach or 

 Yellows. 



In some districts in Ontario Little 

 Peach has already caused the- loss of sev- 

 eral orchards and of many trees in nearby 

 orchards. No chance should be given it 

 to make further progress ; therefore, 

 every grower is urged to destroy AT 

 ONCE every tree marked by the inspec- 

 tor and every suspected tree. It is very 

 important not to let them remain in the 

 orchard till next spring. There is no use 

 in hoping for the recovery of trees ; they 

 never recover from this disease. 



Shrub Hedges 



A. K. Goodman, LL. 



The best of the garden is what you 

 put into it rather than what comes out 

 of it. It is the satisfaction of your 

 tastes and the bettering of them, the 

 thought and sentiment you express in 

 planting and gathering, the innocence 

 and quiet of mind that you take to the 

 seeding, trimming and watering that are 

 the real rewards. 



The winter is the season to take stock 

 of your yard conditions, the reflecting 

 period when your plans are matured for 

 its improvement in the spring. Have 

 you thought of planting any ornamental 

 shrubs? Do so now — let me recommend 

 from personal experience the despised and 

 neglected snowball, the guelder-rose (Vi- 

 burn Opulus) with its globose clus- 

 ters of white sterile flowers, said to be 

 a cultivated variety of high cranberry. It 

 is very hardy, does well enough in any 

 soil and under all conditions, but plant it 

 — attend to it — prune it — feed it, and love 

 it, and the beautiful display of bloom 

 it will in gratitude return will be a source 

 of wonder, pleasure and delight. 



Have you a place where a hedge ef- 

 fect is desirable, then alternate with the 



B., Toronto, Ont. 



best known honeysuckle, the Tartarian 

 from Russia — feed and prune them with 

 care and in a few years nothing will sur- 

 pass the fragrant loveliness of these 

 shrubs in flowers : 



"How sweetly smell the honeysuckle 



In the hush'd nigrht, as if the world were 



one 

 Of utter peace and love and g-entleness." 

 —Tennyson (Gareth and Lynette.) 

 I have also found the lilac or pipe tree 

 and particularly the Persian lilac (S. 

 Persica) an excellent hedge to divide the 

 vegetable garden from the front. The 

 lilac is a widely cultivated ornamental 

 Old World shrub of the genus Syringa of 

 the olive family (Oleaceae), but notwith- 

 standing its ancestry, how do we find it 

 in Ontario? Everywhere sadly neglected, 

 untidy, scraggy, its suckers occupying 

 and spoiling the ground for some feet 

 around the bushes. Try this method, 

 plant a lilac hedge — feed it — prune it for 

 form and flowers — cut out the suckers, 

 and note the great panicles of fragrant 

 bloom it v/ill produce in quantity and 

 quality. I challenge all exotics to excel 

 these flowers in pleasing perfume. 



A Portioa of a Prize WiBBUg Garden in the Earl Grey Garden Campctitien, Ottawa 



The illlutration shows a Tartarian honeysuckle and Snowball Hedge in the grounds of Newton J. 



Kerr, Oity Engineer, Ottawa. 



