262 AMERICAN HOME GARDEX. 



would seem to be a kind of acetous fermentation, running on 

 to putrefactive poison, which is carried, with the very death it 

 represents and includes, as far as the amount of virus produced 

 enables it to spread. 



It nearly resembles the form of death that occurs so com- 

 monly in young fruit-trees when planted where an old one of 

 the same kind has died. 



Dwarfed trees, and those of moderate growth, as the Seckel 

 and Lodge pears, &c., are seldom subject to it, but strong 

 growers in moist rich soils suffer greatly, or are entirely de- 

 stroyed by it. 



The selection of the less vigorous varieties, and the choice 

 of dry and only moderately rich soils for the stronger growing 

 kinds, may be resorted to where a choice in either respect is 

 practicable. But if this can not be had, then let a careful and 

 persistent system of root-pruning be pursued, reaching espe- 

 cially to the roots that strike down into the subsoil. If the 

 effect of this is seen not to be too severe upon the growth of 

 the tree, and not otherwise, follow it with moderate summer 

 pruning. Where it appears only in spots, the diseased portion 

 should be thoroughly cut out and washed with ley, or a solu- 

 tion of copperas (sulphate of iron), and afterward coated with 

 grafting composition No. 3. 



YELLOWS. 



This is a jaundice or consumption in peach-trees, to which 

 they have become liable within the last fifty years, constitut- 

 ing the only real difficulty in raising this fruit. It is vari- 

 ously accounted for, but no available remedy has been found. 

 It has probably arisen from long-continued neglect of culture, 

 combined with overbearing, the latter being incessantly stim- 

 ulated, in addition to other causes, by the very weakness it 

 produced. See Fruiting, page 258. A constitutional hered- 

 itary weakness, or disease, has thus been induced, which, when 

 fully developed, becomes perhaps the very " essentiae mortis," 

 communicable by inoculation, as the virus of an animal body 

 in a state of change, perhaps also by contact, or even by infec- 

 tion. 



