30 THE PEACH 



sion, in the truthfulness of the adage, " that to be 

 forewarned is to be forearmed," and that in these 

 repeated forewarnings I had forearmed myself with 

 the requisite instruments to successfully repel the 

 assaults of the enemy, and to this we are, in an in- 

 direct way, indebted for the lights and shadows on 

 the reversed side of this picture. The trees planted 

 in the orchard were principally obtained from two or 

 three New Jersey nurseries; one lot of which came 

 from the interior of the State, and of a variety now 

 common to our orchards, and of first quality in 

 size and beauty the Crawfords Late and was 

 grown in a well conducted nursery, but in a badly 

 diseased district. I was informed by the nursery- 

 man himself that the infection of the disease was 

 so great, through the neighborhood, that he could 

 scarcely raise sufficient for home use. At the same 

 time, and for years before, be had been raising and 

 inoculating nursery trees, and disposing of them 

 largely to the peach growers in Delaware, Mary- 

 land, and elsewhere every year. This small lot of 

 trees not over 500, perhaps gave me for several 

 seasons more close inspection in detecting and weed- 

 ing out diseased trees than all the rest of the or- 

 chards I possessed. I entertain no doubt, whatever, 

 that the large percentage which was not less than 

 one-third to one-half of the trees became diseased 

 in the nursery, from a general infection, or in bud- 

 ding, trimming, or from some other local cause. I 

 watched them closely, and on the first symptoms of 



