68 THE PEACH 



dications of the same disease. These took a pre- 

 mium, and were sent directly to the Horticultural 

 Fair then open in Philadelphia, and there also re- 

 ceived the premium for their great size and beauty, 

 and as I was informed, were considered a valuable 

 seedling and not the Malacaton as labelled. Hun- 

 dreds of bushels of these prematurely ripened 

 peaches from badly diseased trees are sold in the 

 early markets, bringing prices much greater per- 

 haps than the healthy crop, on account of their 

 early ripening, and hence it is that diseased trees 

 are left standing in yards and gardens and even in 

 the orchards of some peach districts, diffusing their 

 poisonous contagion throughout an entire district, 

 blasting their own and their neighbor's healthy 

 trees, in order that they may at so great sacrifice 

 gather from their dying plants the last deserted 

 and tasteless peach. The disease in its earliest 

 stages in young trees, which, by the way, some- 

 times comes from the nursery in the stock we pur- 

 chase, is more difficult to detect than at a later 

 period. 



It requires a practical eye and a knowledge of 

 the habits of the tree to detect it, and its peculiar 

 features, as there arc several active agents at work 

 which may cause the yellow appearance, and the 

 casual observer might be mistaken ; and through 

 this very common mistake we have so many dif- 

 ferent and infallible recipes for the cure of the 

 yellows. The next indication, and the only one 



