240 AMYGDALUS PERSICA. 
The second season, all the fruit will ripen three or four weeks too soon. The 
tree sometimes dies the next year after the appearance of the disease, and some- 
times lingers along with a feeble life for two or three years. * * * * * Soil, 
whether of clay or sand, whether moist or dry, whether cultivated or in grass, 
manured or unmanured, does not appear to me, clearly, either to increase or 
diminish the liability to disease. Trees standing in exposed and sheltered situa- 
tions, walled and in open ground, on hills and in valleys, seem alike and equally 
liable. * * * * * When the disease commences in a garden or orchard con- 
taining a considerable number of trees, it does not attack all at once. It breaks 
out in patches, which are progressively enlarged, till eventually all the trees 
become victims to the malady. * * * * * I took a blossom from a diseased 
tree, and applied the dust (pollen) to the blossom of a young tree in my gar- 
den. The tree thus exposed to infection, showed no mark of disease, either 
in that or the succeeding year. ***** 1 took some buds from a tree, 
having symptoms of the yellows, and inserted part into peach, part into apri- 
cot, and part into almond stocks. Some of the inoculations took well, but all 
showed marks of disease the next season. The peach and almond stocks, with 
their buds, died the second winter after inoculation. One apricot stock lived 
five years, but its peach top grew, in that time, to be only about three feet 
high. * * * * * In an orchard or garden, containing both old and young 
trees, the young trees will generally be diseased first. ***** Peach-trees 
budded on apricots, plums, and sweet almonds, are liable to the yellows. ***** 
Most of the applications for the cure of the disease, have been made on the sup- 
position that it was caused by the peach-worm. Such are ashes, scalding water, 
charcoal, lime, salt, saltpetre, fish-oil, and urine. All of them have more or less 
agency in excluding the borer, but are not all effectual, even for that purpose. 
Some of them have seemed to promote, for a time, the growth of the trees, and to 
give a deeper green to their leaves; but none that I have ever observed, have at 
at all checked the progress of the yellows." The most effectual, and the only 
remedy for this disease, hitherto discovered, is, on the first symptoms of decay, 
to grub up the trees by the roots, and convert them at once into fuel. 
The principal other accidents to which the peach-tree is liable, are the splitting 
of the limbs at the forks by excessive weight, or by high winds, and the bursting 
of the buds and bark by severe frosts in open and wet winters. 
Properties and Uses. The wood of the peach-tree is hard, compact, of a 
roseate hue, and is susceptible of a fine polish ; but owing to its inferior size and 
comparative scarcity, it is but little used in the arts, or for fuel, except in coun- 
tries where other kinds of wood are rare. When obtained, however, of suitable 
dimensions, it may be employed for similar purposes as that of the almond. A 
colour may also be extracted from it called rose-pink. Its leaves yield, by distil- 
lation, a volatile oil, of a yellow colour, containing hydrocyanic acid. Its bark, 
blossoms, and kernels of the fruit, also possess the same poisonous property. 
From the quantity of gum and sugar contained in the delicious pulp, the peach 
is nutritious, and is employed as a desert, both fresh and preserved. From the 
malic acid contained in its juice, it is slightly refrigerant, and if eaten in moder- 
ate quantities, it is generally considered as wholesome ; but if taken too freely, 
it is liable to disorder the bowels. When stewed with sugar, it may be given as 
a mild laxative to convalescents. The kernels may be used for the same pur- 
pose as those of the bitter almond. The leaves are sometimes employed by the 
cook, the liquorist, and the confectioner, for flavouring, and they have also been 
substitutod for Chinese tea; but, as fatal consequences have sometimes followed 
these uses, they should be looked upon with precaution. 
The preservation of peaches, plums, cherries, apricots, and other kinds of fruit, 
in syrup, occupy a prominent rank in the industry and commerce of France and 
