farmers' miscellany. 283 



YELLOWS IN PEACH TREES. 



BY A. SAUL. 



The fatal malady termed "yellows" in peach trees, has of late 

 aroused horticulturists to institute more than ordinary inquiry 

 into the cause that produces it. In most of our Agricultural and 

 Horticultural Journals, the subject has been discussed by men of 

 experience and observation, and so puzzling is the subject, that 

 scarcely two persons appear to come to the same conclusions, nor 

 has any one individual, so far as I am aware of, satisfied himself 

 I that he has ascertained the cause of this disease. In the Febru- 

 jary number of the Cultivator is an article from Mr. Darling, of 

 •New Haven, Conn., placing before the readers of that journal what 

 Ihe calls, and w'hat in my opinion is, a clear, unmistakable descrip- 

 tion of this fatal disease, with a view of awakening universal re- 

 ; search, in the hope of finding some clue to the cause of this epi- 

 {demic. And, although his positions, on the whole, so far as I am 

 able to judge, are correct, I have never seen, in my comparatively 

 limited opportunities of observation, suflScient to warrant me in 

 lagreeing with him in the conjecture he has hazarded, (to use his 

 own words) that it is derived from some unknown insect. Nor 

 do I think, as is generally supposed, we have evidence sufficient 

 to justify the conclusion that the disease is contagious, and is 

 communicated from tree to tree, while they are in blossom. The 

 fact, that when the disease commences in a plantation containing 

 a number of peach trees, it does not attack the whole at once, but 

 .breaks out in patches or parts of one or more trees, which are pro- 

 Igressively enlarged in the next and ensuing years, till eventually 

 all the trees become victims to the malady, is not of itself enough 

 to settle this point j there must be something more detected in 

 connection with these circumstances, to establish the theory that 

 the disease is contagious. 



Without attempting to prove that the debilitated state of trees 

 having the yellows is caused by exhaustion, from excessively luxu- 

 riant and vigorous growth, and the consequently superabundant 



