604 THE PEACH. 



time the remedy for the Borer already suggested, we will con< 

 fidently insure healthy, vigorous, long-lived trees, and the finest 

 fruit. Will any reasonable man say that so fine a fruit as the 

 peach does not fully merit them ? 



Whether the system of shortening-in and careful culture will 

 prevent the breaking out of the Yellows when constitutionally 

 latent in the tree, we will not yet undertake to say. A few more 

 experiments will prove this. In slight cases of the disease we 

 believe that it may. Of one thing, how r ever, we are certain : it 

 has hitherto failed entirely to reclaim trees in which the malady 

 had once broken out. Neither do we know of any well at- 

 tested case of its cure, after this stage, by any means what- 

 ever.* Such cases have indeed been reported to us, and pub- 

 lished in the journals, but, when investigated, they have 

 proved to have been trees suffering by the effects of the borer 

 only. 



A planter of peach trees must, even with care, expect to see 

 a few cases of Yellows occasionally appear. The malady is 

 too widely extended to be immediately vanquished. Occasion- 

 ally, trees having the constitutional taint will show themselves 

 where least suspected; but when the peach is once properly 

 cultivated, these will every day become more rare until the ori- 

 ginal health and longevity of this fruit tree is again established. 



THE CURL is the name commonly given to a malady which 

 often attacks the leaves of the peach tree. It usually appears 

 in the month of May or June. The leaves curl up, become 

 thickened and swollen, with hollows on the under, and reddish 

 swellings on the upper side, and finally, after two or three 

 weeks, fall off. They are then succeeded by a new and healthy 

 crop of foliage. This malady is caused by the punctures of 

 very minute aphides, or plant lice, (Aphis Persicce?) which at- 

 tack the under side of the leaves. Although it does not appear 

 materially to injure either the tree or the crop, yet it greatly 

 disfigures it for a time. In orchards, perhaps few persons will 

 trouble themselves to destroy the insect, but in gardens it is 

 much better to do so. A mixture of whale-oil soap, or strong 

 soft soap and water, with some tobacco stems boiled in it, and 

 the whole applied to the branches from below with a syringe 

 or garden engine, will soon rid the tree of the insects for one 

 or more years. It should be done when the leaves are a third 

 grown, and will seldom need repeating the same season. 



VARIETIES. The variety of fine peaches cultivated abroad is 

 about fifty ; and half this number embraces all that are highly 



* All the specific applications to the root of such substances as salt, ley. 

 brine, saltpetre, urine, &c., recommended for this disease, are founded on 

 their good effects when applied against the borer. They have aot been 

 found of any value fo * the Yellows. 



