THE CULTIVATION AND DISEASES OF THE PEACH. 67 



Next comes the yellows, said b\' nearly all to be incurable, and 

 should any one ask me what to do on the first appearance of this 

 disease in a tree, I am a little in doubt just what I ought to tell 

 him, yet I rather think I should be weak enough to advise him to 

 cut it down and burn it up at once, for after that there could be no 

 disputing whether I was right or wrong ; the tree could not bear 

 witness and public opinion would say Amen. Yet if it was my 

 own tree, and my own interests onlj' were to be considered, I 

 should no more think of cutting the tree down than I should a 

 friend that had the malaria, — a disease about which the doctors 

 know as little as we do of the 3'ellows, jet they brace us up with 

 quinine and we are able to go on and do a portion of our share of 

 the world's work. 



A tree with the 3'ellows is sick — not dying — and rather than 

 kill it at once or let it die, I would strive to make it well. If 

 slightl}' diseased I would head it back closely, and apply from 

 five to ten pounds of muriate of potash, and cultivate well and 

 often. If in a more advanced stage of the disease, I would cut away 

 two thirds or more of the top — in fact all the small branches — and 

 shorten in the main ones to within two feet of the trunk and apply 

 still more potash and from four to six pounds of nitrate of soda 

 to stimulate new growth at once. In most cases a new and at 

 least apparently healthy growth will take place and the tree to all 

 appearances will be well as ever ; and while it ma}' not be cured, 

 Vp^ho cares, so long as it lives and produces fine, healthy fruit 

 abundantly, and none of the trees near it seem to be any the 

 worse for retaining it? 



Some few trees have not responded to this treatment and have 

 died as though nothing had been done for them ; yet I have not 

 lost faith, and really have very little fear of the yellows. Lime 

 we have used to some extent, but as yet see little, if any, effect 

 from its use so far as the health of the tree is concerned. Follow- 

 ing our general plan health}' peach trees can, I think, be secured 

 anywhere in New England, so that the next point we have to 

 consider is our winter frosts, which, as a matter of fact, are the 

 only real drawback to successful peach culture here. 



Frost, as we all know, will run down hill almost as rapidly as 

 water, therefore while it is important that an elevated site should 

 be selected for planting the peach, it is of still more importance 

 that the elevation be abrupt if possible, as experience shows that 

 an elevation of from fifty to a hundred feet with low ground very 



