598 THE PEACH. 



These shoots are not protruded from the extremities, l)iit from 

 latent buds on the main portions of the stein and larger 

 branches. The leaves are very narrow and small, quite distinct 

 from those of the natural size, and are either pale-yellow or des 

 titute of colour. 



2. The premature ripening of the fruit. This takes place 

 from two to four weeks earlier than the proper season. The 

 first season of the disease it grows nearly to its natural size; the 

 following season it is not more than half or a fourth of that 

 size ; but it is always marked externally (whatever may be the 

 natural colour) with specks and large spots of purplish red. 

 Internally, the flesh is more deeply coloured, especially around 

 the stone, than in the natural state. 



Either of the foregoing symptoms (and sometimes the second 

 appears a season in advance of the first) are undeniable signs 

 of the yellows, and they are not produced by the attacks of the 

 worm or other malady. We may add to them the following 

 additional remarks. 



It is established beyond question, that the yellows is always 

 propagated by budding or grafting from a diseased tree ; that 

 the stock, whether peach or almond, also takes the disease, and 

 finally perishes ; and that the seeds of the diseased trees pro- 

 duce young trees in which the yellows sooner or later break out. 

 To this we may add that the peach, budded on the plum or 

 apricot, is also known to die with the yellows. 



The most luxuriant and healthy varieties appear most liable 

 to it. Slow-growing sorts are rarely affected. 



Very frequently only a single branch, or one side of a tree, 

 will be affected the first season. But the next year it invariably 

 spreads through its whole system. Frequently, trees badly 

 affected will die the next year. But usually it will last, growing 

 more and more feeble every year, for several seasons. The roots, 

 on digging up the tree, do not appear in the least diseased. 



The soil does not appear materially to increase or lessen the 

 liability to the Yellows, though it first originated, and is most 

 destructive, in light, warm, sandy soils. Trees standing in hard 

 trodden places, as in or b} a frequented side-walk, often outlive 

 all others. 



Lastly, it is the nearly universal opinion of all orchardists 

 that the YeLows is a contagious disease, spreading gradually, 

 but certainly, from tree to tree through whole orchards. It 

 was conjectured by the late William Prince that this takes place 

 when the trees are in blossom, the contagion being carried 

 from tree to tree in the pollen by bees and the wind. This 

 view is a questionable one, and it is rendered more doubtful by 

 the fact that experiments have been made by dusting the pol- 

 len of diseased trees upon the blossoms of healthy ones without 

 communicating the Yellows. 



