PEACH-TREE. 239 
reader is referred to our article on the domestic cultivated plum, under the head 
rf " Insects." 
The seventeen-year locust, {Cicada septendecim,) although most usually found 
Mi the oak, often resorts to other forest trees, when actuated by necessity, and 
not unfrequently deposits her eggs on the branches of the peach-tree, when no 
3ther convenient shrub or tree is at hand. Peach-trees once attacked by this 
most pernicious insect, seldom, if ever, recover from the inflicted wounds. 
Among the diseases incident to plants, there is no one involved in more mys- 
tery than that strange disorder in the peach-tree, commonly called the " yellows." 
tt was noticed in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia, by Judge Peters, in 1790, 
3r the year following. From perfect verdure, he states, the leaves of his trees 
turned yellow in a few days, and their bodies blackened in spots. He attributed 
the origin of the disease to some morbid affection of the air, which he conceived 
las the most to do with all vegetation, as well in its food and sustenance, as 
in its decay and dissolution. From Philadelphia, the malady spread, by degrees, 
to other parts of the country; and by 1810, in New Jersey, there were left but a 
few peach orchards alive, or in a flourishing state. It is said to have appeared 
in the vicinity of New York, in about the year 1801 ; in Connecticut, in 1815 ; 
ind in Massachusetts, in 1824. It is also prevalent in the southern states of the 
union, and west of the Alleghany Mountains. 
The phenomena attending the development of this disease, are given in detail, 
in the second number of the "Albany Cultivator," of 1845, by Mr. Noyes Dar- 
iing, of New Haven, from which we make the following condensed extracts : 
: ' There are two marks or symptoms, by which the presence of the disease is 
indicated. One is, the shooting out from the body or limbs of the tree, of very 
small, slender shoots, about the size of a hen's quill. The leaves upon these 
shoots are commonly destitute of green colour, as if blanched, or as if grown in 
a dark cellar ; and like the shoots which bear them, are of diminutive growth, 
rarely exceeding an inch in length. These shoots do not usually start from the 
common, visible buds at the points where the leaves join the stem, but from 
unseen, latent buds in the bark of the trunk or large branches. The other symp- 
tom is, the ripening of the fruit two to four weeks before its natural season of 
maturity. Most generally also, the fruit, whatever be its natural colour, is more 
ar less spotted with purplish-red specks. If shoots, such as are above described, 
appear upon a tree, or without them, if the fruit upon any part of it (not wormy) 
ripens before the proper time, it may be certainly known that the tree has the 
yellows. These are not the only marks or symptoms of the disease ; but they 
are those which are the most readily discovered. Tlie ordinary leaves of the 
tree, or at least those upon the diseased portion of it, commonly undergo a slight 
change of colour. Instead of a bright glossy green, they take on a dull yellowish 
tinge. The wood also, when the disease is considerably advanced, becomes 
unelastic, so that its branches, when moved by the wind, instead of the graceful 
waving of health, have a stiff jerking motion. * * * * * The fruit, the first 
season of attack, usually grows to its proper size. The second season, it is uni- 
formly small, not more than a half or a quarter of its usual size. Whatever be 
j.he natural colour of the fruit, red, yellow, white, or green, it is more or less, 
when diseased, coloured with purplish-red; generally in specks, or coarse dots. 
irtie flesh, quite to the stone, is often coloured, and most deeply around the stone. 
;3y the coloured specks, a person may easily distinguish by the eye, diseased, 
|rom healthy fruit. * * # * * In the first summer of disease, it is not always 
pat the whole tree appears affected. The slender shoots may show themselves 
m one branch only, the rest of the tree having every appearance of health. In 
jtke manner, the fruit upon one branch may ripen four weeks too soon, upon 
[nother two weeks too soon, and upon the rest of the tree at the natural time. 
