PEACHES AA'D YELLOWS IN THE CHESAPEAKE COUNTRY. 



21 



those in Michigan. We should expect this, from our 

 knowledge of the influence of climate. Dr. Smith, the 

 Department of Agriculture agent in charge of the yel- 

 lows investigation — his portrait in Fig. 2 is admirable ! — 

 tells me that the trees in the Chesapeake region average 

 larger than in any country he has seen, even larger than 

 in Georgia. He thinks that the largeness is due in great 

 part to the comparatively moist climate, which enables 

 the trees to grow more rapidly, and more continuously 

 throughout the summer, than elsewhere. But whatever 

 the particular causes may be, this record of the effects 

 of climate may prove useful. 



All this region of southern Jersey, Delaware and east- 

 ern Maryland is a natural peach country, and it is 

 probably the most important one in the world. The 

 great markets — New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, 

 Washington — are in easy reach, and the business is 

 extensive enough to attract evaporating establishments, 

 canneries, and all the incidental advantages which aid 



in disposing of large crops. The orchards, especially in 

 Maryland, are much larger than in Michigan and New 

 York. This is due largely to the fact that the style of 

 agriculture is rather more extensive than northwards ; it 

 lacks condensation. Orchards of 100 to 200 acres are 

 not uncommon along the east shore of the Chesapeake. 

 Peach culture has been profitable in these regions, but 

 it has passed its palmy days. 



The yellows is now over-running the country with ter- 

 rible havoc. The upper half of Delaware is turning its 

 attention elsewhere, and peach culture is going south- 

 wards, ever pursued by the scourge. There are large 

 tracts of open fields north of Dover which were once 

 busy orchards. But now the orchards are rare, even so 

 far south as Dover, in which the disease is not abundant 



and destructive. Orchard after orchard is hopelessly 

 ruined, and the rows of stumps and windrows of tree 

 tops mark the downfall of a beautiful and lucrative indus- 

 try. Fig. 3 (page 23), made from a photograph taken near 

 Dover, shows a common scene. In Kent county, Mary- 

 land, lying across the Chesapeake from Baltimore, the 

 yellows now has the mastery, and in Cecil county, to the 

 northward, it has well-nigh ruined the peach business. 



Everywhere this yellows has the same appearance as 

 it does in New York and Michigan ; it is the same dis- 

 ease. But in Michigan it has been quarantined, while 

 southwards it has been neglected. I visited scores of 

 orchards in which half or more of the trees were badly 

 diseased, and yet the owner made no attempt to remove 

 them. Such a condition of affairs is unintelligible to a 

 northern peach grower. Of course there are some who 

 cut them out diligently, but it is of little avail amid the 

 general neglect. Many growers intend to cut out the 

 diseased trees, but they never get to it. In spring, they 

 will be cut out in fall ; in fall, they will be re- 

 moved in winter ; but other business always inter- 

 feres. " How soon would you cut them out — the 

 next fall ?" asked one. " The next hour, " I replied. 



But it is not strange that the disease should be 

 misunderstood, and consequently often neglected. 

 It does not appear suddenly, with striking symp- 

 tons which would attract a casual observer, nor 

 does it always kill the tree within a definite time. 

 It is obscure and mysterious, and therefore pro- 

 vokes almost endless debate. It is natural that 

 at first local conditions of soil or climate or treat- 

 ment should be regarded as the cause of it, but 

 it would seem that the facts now evoked by the 

 discussions at societies everywhere, and by the 

 observations of trained students, are sufficient to 

 show that yellows is not a local trouble or condi- 

 tion, but a wide-spread disease of immense im- 

 portance. We must look over the fence and en- 

 large our views. And there is no better proof 

 that it is a specific disease than the fact that its 

 symptoms are essentially the same everywhere, in 

 all soils and all conditions. If it were a local matter 

 it would not only occur alohe in restricted areas, 

 but the symptoms would vary with the locality. But 

 definite records are now indisputable that the disease 

 occurs on all soils, under all methods of treatment, and 

 they indicate that it may occur in any region. It is prob- 

 ably only a matter of time until it will appear west of 

 the Rocky mountains. It was once supposed that the 

 disease could not occur in the virgin soils of the Michi- 

 gan shore, but the experiences of the last twenty years 

 have sufficiently overthrown that dogma. Peach grow- 

 ers have been separated upon the yellows question, every 

 man endeavoring to prove himself to be right. But it 

 is now time that we work together for the truth, inde- 

 pendently of any man's assumptions. Certainly the 

 condition of the Chesapeake orchards is bad enough to 

 call loudly for help. . ■ ■ . • 



Fig. I. A Six-year-old Michigan Peach Orchard. 



