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soil, want of drainage, or other causes. These forms of Yellows, which 

 also pass under the name of Jaundice, may be cured if treated at an early 

 stage of the complaint by removing the causes and amputating such parts 

 of the trees as are affected by disease. There is, however, another form 

 of Yellows which is very destructive in America and to a less extent in 

 Europe, but the writer is not certain as to whether this disease is as yet 

 to be found in Australasia. It is uncertain as to whether this disease is 

 of American origin, but it has caused the destruction of an immense 

 number of Peach trees in the United States. This disease iirst makes its 

 appearance upon the fruit, which becomes spotted and ripens abnormally 

 early, sometimes a month before the proper time. The spots vary in 

 colour, according to the variety, from a dull red to a deep purple. 

 Underneath the skin, below the spots, the flesh is blotched and streaked 

 with red. The foliage at first is apparently healthy, but as the season 

 advances it assumes a yellowish tinge, which gradually deepens to reddish- 

 brown, and the leaves twist and curl. Another indication of the disease 

 is the starting into growth of the young buds upon the current season's 

 wood as soon as they are formed. Pale weak sprouts also spring from 

 abnormal and obscure buds that are developed in the bark. The flowers 

 of affected trees make a much earlier appearance than usual, and are often 

 produced in the autumn. When trees become affected by this disease 

 they gradually die off, generally branch by branch. Sometimes they will 

 go off after the first season, but often linger on for two or three years. 

 There is no known cure for this disease, and should it make its 

 appearance, affected trees must be promptly rooted out and destroyed. 

 The disease may be transmitted by cuttings, grafts, or buds from affected 

 trees, and, consequently, in propagating great care is necessary. 



SELECTION OF SORTS. 



Peaches are broadly divided into two classes, called respectively free- 

 stones, or melters, and ding-stones, or pavies. The first-named class 

 comprises those kinds that separate freely from the stones. In the 

 cl ing-stone class the pulp adheres firmly to the seeds. Each class 

 embraces a number of varieties named and cultivated, and the list is 

 being added to every year. The varieties differ widely in size, shape, 

 colour of the skin and flesh, juiciness, flavour, and in the time of ripening. 

 In making a selection cultivators must' take all these matters into 

 consideration, as also the purposes for which they are growing the fruit. 

 As dessert fruit, fine-looking luscious juicy varieties are desirable, and 

 earliness and lateness of ripening are considerations that must not be 

 ignored. For canning or drying, the requirements are a firm flesh and a 

 tough fibre. If wanted specially for cider-making or distilling, the 

 varieties should be juicy arid free bearing. 



VARIETIES OF PEACHES. 



There are an immense number of varieties in cultivation, and, as new 

 sorts are readily obtainei, the list is rapidly extending. The descriptions 



