598 THE PEACH. 
These shoots are not protruded from the extremities, hut from 
latent buds on the main portions of the stem and larger 
branches. The leaves are very narrow and small, quite distinet 
from those of the natural size, and are either pals-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 deepxy coloured, ey around 
the stone, than in the natural state. 
Either of the foregoing symptoms apn conielinnes 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 plo 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 by a frequented side-walk, often outlive 
all others, 
Lastly, it is the nearly universal opinion of all orchardiste 
that the Yel.ows 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. 
