THE PEACH. 



587 



the trees every spring and autumn. On removing the earth for a few 

 inches, the appearance of gum or castings quickly indicates where the 

 borer has made his lodging. A few moments with the knife will then 

 eradicate the insect for the season. 



The Yellows. This most serious malady seems to belong exclu- 

 sively to this country, and to attack only the peach-tree. Although it 

 has been the greatest enemy of the peach-planter for the last thirty 

 years, — rendering the life of the tree uncertain, and frequently spreading 

 over and destroying the orchards of whole districts, — still little is 

 known of its nature, and nothing with certainty of its cause. Many 

 slight observers have confounded it with the effects of the peach-borer, 

 but all persons who have carefully examined it know that the two are 

 totally distinct. Trees may frequently be attacked by both the yellows 

 and the borer, but hundreds die of the yellows when the most minute 

 inspection of the roots and branches can discover no insect or visible 

 cause. Still we believe proper cultivation will entirely rid our gardens 

 and orchards of this malady ; and this belief is in part borne out by 

 experiments under our own inspection. In order to combat it suc- 

 cessfully, it is necessary that the symptoms should be clearly under- 

 stood. 



Symptoms. The Yellows appears to be a constitutional disease, no 

 external cause having yet been assigned for it. Its infallible symptoms 

 are the following : — 



1. The production upon the branches of very slender ', wiry shoots, a 

 few inches long, and bearing starved diminutive leaves. These shoots 

 are not protruded from the extremities, but from latent buds on the 

 main portions of the stem and larger branches. The leaves are very 

 narrow and small, quite distinct from those of the natural size, and are 

 either pale yellow or destitute of color. 



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 exter- 

 nally (whatever may be the natural color) with specks and large spots 

 of purplish red. Internally the flesh is more deeply colored, especially 

 around the stone, than in the natural state. 



Either of the foregoing symptoms (and sometimes the second ap- 

 pears a season in advance of the first) are undeniable signs of the Yel- 

 lows, 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 can always be 

 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 produce young trees in which 

 the Yellows sooner or later breaks out. To this we may add that the 

 peach, budded on the plum or apricot, is also known to die with the 

 Yellows. 



Yery 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. 



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