AND ITS DISEASE. 11 



Judge Richard Peters, President of the Philadelphia 

 Agricultural Society, dated February 11, 1806, and 

 published in the transactions of that Society 

 which was instituted in 1785. From this carefully 

 prepared article, it is evident that the Judge took a 

 deep interest in the growth and cultivation of the 

 Peach. He states " I know not in the catalogue of 

 our trees, one more desirable, nor one more subject 

 to mortification, decay and disease than the Peach. 

 I have cultivated it from my early youth about 

 fifty years ago on the farm on which I now reside, 

 my father had large peach orchards which yielded 

 abundantly and they so continued for years, pro- 

 ducing plentiful crops with but little attention 

 then the trees began nearly at once to sicken and 

 finally perish. I have often found sick trees to in- 

 fect those in vigor near them by some morbid 

 effluvia." In this communication, Judge Peters 

 refers to a plantation of 700 to 800 trees of natural 

 fruit, which he calls an extensive orchard, and plant- 

 ed by Mr. Edward Heston, (near Hestonville,West 

 Philadelphia, and near what is known as the Cen- 

 tennial grounds) on rather flat clay land, and states 

 " that Mr. Heston begins to suffer by the disease I 

 call yellows." Following up his observations in 

 the progress of this disease in Mr. Heston's orchard ? 

 in September, 1807, he writes, " as I predicted the 

 yellows are seen making destructive ravages in Mr- 

 Heston's peach plantation. I have lost a great pro- 

 portion of my trees by the same malady. This year 



