58 THE PEACH 



in the North arose from another cause, which was 

 noticed and first recorded by Judge Peters, the 

 President of the "Philadelphia Agricultural So- 

 ciety," who, on the llth of February, 1806, in a 

 communication to the Society, wrote : "About 

 fifty years ago, on the farm on which I now re- 

 side, my father had a large peach orchard which 

 yielded abundantly until a general catastrophe be- 

 fel it. Plentiful crops had been for many years 

 produced with but little attention, when the trees 

 all at once began* to decline and finally perished. 

 For forty years past I have observed the peach 

 trees in my neighborhood to be short lived." This 

 sudden transition from a long life to a short one 

 was not from the exhaustion of the soil. It was 

 from disease, and in the peach tree the great and 

 overshadowing disease caused by a "parasitic 

 fungi," and perhaps from slighter injuries from in- 

 sect life. These pests being destroyed, the orchard 

 will be restored to its primitive health, thrift, pro- 

 ductiveness and a more prolonged life. 



The remedy is at hand in the very elements 

 which afford food for the tree, and of which it is 

 mainly composed lime, potash and other alkalies, 

 -and while giving life and strength to the tree they 

 .are striking down and removing the cause of dis- 

 ease, when properly applied. 



In recommending a suitable manure for the peach, 

 and following out the indications shown by the 

 analysis, and my own experience, I may say that 



