PEACH. 



PEACH TREE BORER. 



in size and flavour, the worms destroyed, and 

 the yellows prevented. 



The Yellows. The immediate cause of this 

 fatal disease with which the peach tree is so 

 often attacked, is still a matter involved in 

 great obscurity. The following observations, 

 by Mr. Robert Sinclair, of Clairmont Nursery, 

 near Baltimore, Maryland, contains the views 

 of a person of great intelligence and expe- 

 rience, in regard to the disease in question. 



As I have, for about 30 years, occasionally 

 had my attention drawn to this subject, I am 

 willing, says Mr. Sinclair, to throw in my mite 

 of experience. I am fully satisfied that the 

 complaint exists. Some persons say that the 

 worm at the root is the cause of the yellows. 

 I acknowledge that any disorder that destroys 

 the trees will cause the leaves to turn yellow; 

 but the complaint I call the yellows will kill a 

 whole orchard, without any visible wounds, on 

 or before the third or fourth full crop. I think 

 where any neighbourhood abounds with peach 

 orchards, it will be nearly impossible to keep 

 clear of the disease. 



On planting out young peach trees on the 

 site of a peach nursery, two years after the 

 nursery was removed, and although the ground 

 was in other respects well suited for the growth 

 of the peach tree, yet by the next autumn many 

 of them were dead, and the balance so sickly 

 that I had them all dug up, and there was no 

 sign of the worm at their roots. From this, 

 and other similar experiments, I think the dis- 

 ease may be generated by planting too near 

 where a nursery or orchard of peach trees has 

 been, or where the latter is ; consequently, 

 where a neighbourhood abounds with peach 

 trees, there is danger of its becoming over- 

 spread with disease, without greater care than 

 is usually taken to prevent it. 



I think I have seen evidences of its being in 

 some degree contagious. Richard Cromwell, 

 the respectable and worthy peach raiser, near 

 Baltimore, has for upwards of 30 years sup- 

 plied that city with peaches of the best quality, 

 on a large scale. Some time since, when I was 

 walking with Mr. Cromwell through his peach 

 orchard, when the trees were hanging full of 

 ripe fruit: he pointed out a tree that he said had 

 the yellows, having a full crop upon it, at that 

 time worth one dollar per peck, and to me it 

 appeared healthy ; but he observed to me, "as 

 soon as I lake the fruit from the tree, I shall 

 dig it up, in order to prevent the disease spread- 

 ing any farther, for I expect the side of the ad- 

 joining trees next to it will be affected next 

 season." I had occasion to pass through Mr. 

 Cromwell's orchard the next fruiting time, and 

 the sickly tree had been dug up, but, as had 

 been predicted, parts of the four neighbouring 

 trees were evidently much affected, but only 

 the sides next to the diseased tree, which made 

 it the more striking, and convincing of the 

 contagion, if this is a proper term. 



On another occasion, I had a favourite early 

 purple peach, before I had a nursery, that I 

 suspected was partially affected by the yellows, 

 and being desirous of preserving the variety, I 

 cut the healthiest branch I could get, and I had 

 12 bnds inserted in healthy peach stocks; but 

 when they had grown about 3 feet, they showed 

 880 



the disease so plainly, that in order to prevent 

 it from spreading, I pulled up all the trees and 

 had them burnt. 



From these cases, it seems to me the disease 

 may be generated by planting old peach or- 

 chards or nurseries too soon after the removal 

 of the old trees, and also by planting top near 

 those already affected with the disease: and 

 if cuttings or scions are taken from diseased 

 trees, their product will be also diseased. I 

 also think the yellows may be communicated 

 to young trees by planting seeds taken from 

 diseased peach trees. (Hovey's Magazine of 

 Horticulture.) 



Drying Peaches. Several modes of effecting 

 this are pursued. When done in-doors, furnaces 

 should be placed in the cellar from which the 

 heated air may rise into the building suitably 

 provided with shelves, &c. 



In some of the Southern States, says Mr. 

 Kenrick, the process is facilitated by a pre- 

 vious scalding. This is effected by immersing 

 baskets of the fruit a few minutes in kettles 

 of boiling water. They are afterwards halved, 

 the stone separated, and being laid with the 

 skins downwards, the drying is effected in the 

 sun in three days of good weather. They then 

 may be stored in boxes. 



In France, as we are informed, peaches and 

 other fruits are thus dried whole. The peaches 

 or other fruits, being pared, are boiled for a few 

 minutes in a syrup consisting of 1 pound of 

 sugar dissolved in 3 quarts of water, and after 

 being drained by being laid singly on board 

 dishes, they are placed in the oven after the 

 bread is taken out, and when sufficiently dry 

 they are packed in boxes. The following is 

 the mode of drying practised by Mr. Thomas 

 Bellangee, of Egg Harbour, New Jersey. He 

 has a small house provided with a stove, and 

 drawers in the sides of the house lathed at 

 their bottoms, with void intervals. The peaches 

 should be ripe, and cut in two, not peeled, and 

 laid in a single layer on the laths, with their 

 skins downward, to save the juice. On shov- 

 ing in the drawer, they are soon dried by the 

 hot air produced by the" stove. In this way 

 great quantities may successively, in a single 

 season, be prepared, with a very little expense 

 in the preparation of the building, and in fuel. 



PEACH TREE BORER. PI. 16, fig. 8. The 

 following interesting description of the peach 

 tree worm, with a mode of protecting against 

 its ravages, is from Dr. Harris's Treatise on 

 Destructive Insects. 



The pernicious borer, which, during many 

 years past, has proved very destructive to 

 peach trees throughout the United States, is a 

 species of JE.ge.ria, named exitiosa, or the de- 

 structive, by Mr. Say, who first scientifically 

 described it in the third volume of the Journal 

 of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 

 phia, and subsequently gave a representation 

 and account of it in his American Entomology. 

 In the fifth volume of the New England 

 Farmer, I have given the history of this in- 

 sect, have mentioned the principal authors 

 who have noticed it, and recommended pre- 

 ventive measures, which have been found 

 effectual in protecting the peach tree from its 

 most serious attacks. The eggs, from which 





