J22 



The Yellows in Peach Trees. 



Vol. X. 



are very valuable in rural economy. Those 

 kinds which yield the most starch are best 

 for bread. Those which contain the largest 

 portion of oil are best calculated for feeding 

 poultry. 



Prof. Mapes — Corn is supposed sometimes 

 not to flourish for want of the presence of 

 phosphates in the soil. How to supply such 

 deficiency — bone dust is well adapted, for 

 bone dust contains eighty-five per cent, of 

 phosphate of lime and fifteen per cent, of 

 gelatine. The fish called Moss Bunker, 

 used for manure, is valuable principally on 

 account of the super phosphate of lime in its 

 bones. It is the chemical element to which 

 its fertilizing powers are due. — Farmer and 

 Mechanic. 



For the Farmers' Cabinet. 



The Yellows in Peach Trees. 



All who appreciate the peach as one of 

 our most delightful fruits, must watch with 

 interest every suggestion that may promote 

 its preservation and thrift. For several years 

 past the yellows and the worm made our 

 peach orchards so short-lived and so apt 

 scarcely to bear at all, that our Jersey farm- 

 ers were so discouraged that few trees were 

 planted; they however seem to have revived 

 for the last season or two, and many orchards 

 have recently been set out. I meet with the 

 remarks below in the Cultivator, and though 

 there is nothing conclusive in them, they 

 will yet, 1 believe, be read with interest by 

 many readers of the Cabinet, as they have 

 by myself W. N. 



Newtown, N. J. 



The Yellows in peach trees, is a subject 

 that still continues to be interesting in this 

 part of the country. I wish, therefore, to 

 communicate a fact which may be of some 

 importance in our inquiries after the cause 

 of that disease. 



Four years ago, Mr. B. Silliman, Jr., of 

 this city, procured from Liverpool a consi- 

 derable number of young peach and necta- 

 rine trees budded on plum stocks. Some 

 of them were put for standards and others 

 walled upon a board fence. There had been 

 no peach trees for twenty years on the ground 

 where those were planted. They grew well 

 the first season, and appeared inperfecthealth. 

 The second season some of the peach trees 

 showed symptoms of yellows, and died the 

 third season. At the present time — Febru- 

 ary, 1846, — no one of the trees, either nec- 

 tarine or peach, is free from disease. In the 

 garden adjoining that of Mr. Silliman, there 

 were diseased trees standing at the time the 

 imported trees were planted out. 



The following inferences may perhaps be 

 safely made from this experiment. 



1. Budding on plum stocks, is not a secu- 

 rity against the " yellows." 



2. The plum tree has not hitherto been 

 known to be liable to the disease. We may 

 therefore conclude that the disease com- 

 menced in Mr. Silliman's trees in the peach 

 and not in the plum portion — that is, in the 

 top, and not in the root. This furnishes a 

 strong probability that it is the natural course 

 of the disease to commence and be seated 

 primarily, in the part of the tree above 

 ground. 



3. The disease did not arise from anything 

 inherent in the trees, but from some cause 

 external to and disconnected from them. 

 The ground of this conclusion will not be 

 apparent without taking in connection with 

 what has been stated, the fact, that the 

 "yellows" is unknown in England. This 

 conclusion bears pretty directly upon an 

 important theory, which has been very ably 

 presented to the public in a recent work, 

 and met with a favourable reception. The 

 theory is thus stated: the yellows is " a con- 

 stitutional taint, existing in many American 

 varieties of the peach, and produced in the 

 first place by bad cultivation and the conse- 

 quent exhaustion arising from successive 

 over-crops. Afterwards it has been estab- 



ished and perpetuated by sowing the seeds 

 of the enfeebled tree." 



It is most sincerely to be regretted that 

 any fact should present itself, that seems ir- 

 reconcilable with a theory which oflfers to 

 us, if correct, so ready and sure a means of 

 having healthy trees. According to the 

 theory, trees procured from region's where 

 the disease has not appeared — England, 

 France, Italy, China, or even our own 

 "Great West," for example — should be free 

 from disease, and should continue so, if 

 planted in an unexhausted soil. Mr. Silli- 

 man's experiment leads us to apprehend 

 that we are not in that way to escape the 

 evil. 



To see that we make no unwarranted 

 conclusion, let us advert to the facts and 

 circumstances involved in this trial of for- 

 eign trees. It is well known that the "yel- 

 lows" has not appeared in England. Mr. 

 Downing (Fruits and Fruit Trees of Ame- 

 rica, p. 467,) states a further fact, that " not- 

 withstanding the great number of American 

 varieties of peach trees that have been re- 

 peatedly sent to England, and are now grow- 

 ing there, the disease has never extended 

 itself there, or been communicated to other 

 trees." Peach trees in England, therefore, 

 have no constitutional taint, that makes 

 them liable to the " yellows j" and if they 



