AND ITS DISEASE. 6T 



tree fully dispelled the delusion, and instead of a 

 new early variety, the disappointment ended in a 

 crop of small astringent, worthless fruit and a tree 

 in the advanced stage of the disease. The most of 

 our authors inform us that the fruit indicating the 

 disease is smaller than the healthy fruit. My ex- 

 perience uniformally has been that in the first 

 stages of the disease, where but a few peaches on a 

 tree ripen prematurely, they are much larger than* 

 mature fruit of the general crop of the same va- 

 riety. I well recollect, and will here cite one or 

 two cases of trees slightly affected, which produced 

 fruit of immense size : 



At the first exhibition of the Chester County 

 Horticultural Society, held at West Chester, Pa. r 

 early in September, 1848, Mr. B. Graves exhibited 

 a few specimens of the Red Cheek Malacaton, which 

 for size and beauty could not have been excelled,, 

 many of them measuring thirteen inches in cir- 

 cumference, but all exhibited here and thereon 

 the surface the fatal symptoms of disease, mani- 

 fested by deep reddish, purple splotches and hectic 

 spots, in beautiful contrast with that rich tint pe- 

 culiar only to this delicate fruit. This, of course,, 

 was the first and the last contribution from that 

 noble tree, and it fell prematurely under this fatal 

 disease that has seldom spared its victim. 



There was exhibited at the same time a beauti- 

 ful collection of the same variety from an orchard 

 near Chester Springs, which also showed slight in- 



