DISEASES OF CULTIVATED PLANTS 481 



also indicate where the fungus rests ; and they are warnings of danger 

 for another season. (N. Y. [Cornell] E. S. B. 164.) 



Little Peach Disease. Though the little peach disease has been 

 much discussed in horticultural papers and elsewhere, its character- 

 istics are so little understood by New York orchardists that other 

 troubles are often mistaken for it. Knowing that the disease exists 

 in the State, any general occurrence of small peaches in an orchard 

 leads the owner to fear an outbreak of this dreaded disease. 



But small peaches, even though they may occur quite generally 

 throughout an orchard, and may destroy all chance of profit for the 

 year, do not alone indicate little peach. They may be due to over- 

 bearing of the previous year, to unsuitable soil, to lack of available 

 plant food, to unfavorable climatic conditions, and to other causes. 

 The trees should not be destroyed until the owner knows surely that 

 the trouble is little peach, for from these other conditions the chances 

 of recovery are good. If convinced that the trouble is the true dis- 

 ease, however, no time should be lost in taking out the trees, for little 

 peach ranks with yellows in destructiveness and apparent communi- 

 cability. Trees affected with it never recover. 



An orchard near Penn Yan, consisting of 150 ten-year-old trees 

 of Globe peaches bore only one-sixth or one-eighth of a crop of full 

 sized peaches last year, the remaining fruits of a full setting being too 

 small for market. The owner thought the trouble little peach, but 

 it was due to improper fertilization of the flowers at setting time. 



The little, unfertilized or imperfectly fertilized fruits, instead of 

 falling at the June drop hung on the trees until fall. Some of them 

 made considerable growth, but on cutting open the smaller ones they, 

 were found to contain soft, imperfect pits with small or no kernels. 

 This showed that they were not properly fertilized. Why they were 

 not, or why they hung on in spite of lack of fertilization, could not 

 be determined. The orchard seemed to be healthy, the trees had 

 borne good loads the previous year, but not excessive ones as the fruits 

 were thinned; soil and atmospheric conditions appeared favorable; 

 and trees of other varieties in the same orchard were unaffected, ex- 

 cept Elberta, which showed traces of the same disease. 



In little peach all the fruits on the affected limb or side of the 

 tree are small and of quite uniform size; in this trouble full-sized 

 perfect fruits were found side by side with others varying from two- 

 thirds normal size down to the size of a hickory nut. In little peach 

 the pits are of full size with well developed kernels, even though the 

 fruits are small, while in the imperfectly fertilized peaches the size 

 of the pits varies with the size of the fruits. (N. Y. [Geneva] E. 

 S. B. 200.) 



Peach Mildew. The injury is due to a fungus which attacks 

 leaves, twigs and fruit alike. It appears on the fruits while they are 

 yet small and immature, often causing them to fall prematurely. Its 

 first appearance is indicated by a musty or frost-like patch upon the 

 surface. When well established, the spots become almost pure white ; 

 the color being due to the mycelium and its fruiting branches, which 

 overrun the surface upon which the fungus establishes itself. The 



