THE YELLOWS. 467 



the season of early peaches, thousands of bushels of fruit, show- 

 ing the infallible symptoms of the Yellows a spotted skin, &c., 

 are exposed and sold in the markets of New- York, Philadelphia 

 and Boston. Every year more or less of the stones of these 

 peaches are planted, to produce, in their turn, a generation of 

 diseased trees, and every successive generation is even more 

 feeble and sickly than the last ! Even in the north, so feeble 

 has the stock become in many places, that an excessive crop of 

 fine fruit is but too frequently followed by the Yellows. In this 

 total absence of proper care in the selection both of the seed 

 and the trees, followed by equal negligence of good cultivation, 

 is it surprising that the peach has become a tree comparatively 

 difficult to preserve, and proverbially short-lived ! 



Abroad, it is well known that the peach is always subjected to 

 a regular system of pruning, and is never allowed to produce an 

 over-crop. It is not a little singular, both that the Yellows 

 should never have originated there, and that, notwithstanding the 

 great number of American varieties of this fruit that have been 

 repeatedly sent to England and are now growing there, the disease 

 has never extended itself, or been communicated to other trees, 

 or even been recognized by English or French horticulturists. 

 We must confess these facts appear to us strong proofs in fa- 

 vour of our opinion as to the nature and origin of the malady. 



Remedy for the Yellows. It may seem to many persons a 

 difficult task to rid ourselves of so wide spread a malady as this, 

 yet we are confident that a little perseverance and care will cer- 

 tainly accomplish it. In the present uncertainty with regard to its 

 contagious nature, it is much the wisest course to reject "the 

 benefit of the doubt," and act upon the principle that it is so. We 

 know at the present moment several gardens, where the trees 

 are maintained in good health by immediately rooting out and 

 destroying every tree as soon as it shows marked symptoms of 

 the malady. 



1. We would therefore commence by exterminating, root and 

 branch, every tree which has the Yellows. And another tree 

 should not be planted in the same spot without a lapse of several 

 years, or a thorough removal of the soil. 



2. The utmost care should be taken to select seeds for plant- 

 ing from perfectly healthy trees. Nurserymen to secure this 

 should gather them from the latest ripening varieties, or procure 

 them from districts of the country where the disease is not 

 known. 



3. So far we have aimed only at procuring a healthy stock of 

 trees. The most important matter remains to be stated how 

 to preserve them in a healthy state. 



The answer to this is emphatically as follows ; pursue steadily, 

 from the first bearing year, the shortening -in system of pruning, 

 already explained. This will at once secure your trees against 



