PEACH YELLOWS IN MICILIGAN. 



397 



The kinds of fruits wliicli keep best in cold stor- 

 age are apples, pears, strawberries, grapes, lemons 

 and oranges. Grapes put in cold storage will very 

 soon fall from the stems after being taken out. 

 Cherries and plums, taken from cold storage, will 

 decay very rapidly, but they will keep in culd stor- 

 age for several days. Of all the delicate fruits that 

 may be protected with ice, there is none , with which 

 it agrees as well as strawberries. The best temper- 

 ature for apples is 3^° to 33°. Strawberries keep 

 well at 40° to 45° ; pears at 35°. Care should be 



taken to preserve as uniform a temperature as pos- 

 sible. When large quantities are being put in the 

 refrigerator daily, salt should be used on the ice in 

 sufficient quantities to keep the temperature down, 

 as near as possible, to the figures given above'. As 

 often as one-third of the quantity of ice in the cham- 

 ber is gone, it should be refilled. It would answer 

 to let it run lower, but the above is a wise precau- 

 tion. These instructions answer for the Wicks, or 

 others constructed on the same principle. 



Oswego, AL y. J. Heagerty. 



PEACH YELLOWS IN MICHIGAN. 



THE DISEASE, THE LAW AND THE RESULT. 



THIS most fatal scourge of the Michigan fruit Different varieties, both early and late, were all at- 



grower first made its appearance in the tacked nearly the same in all localities. Trees of all 



"peach belt " on the east shore of Lake ages and conditions were attacked alike in all seasons, 



Michigan about twenty years ago. It began whether cold and wet or hot and dry. The model thrifty 



,1 .1 ^■ c -a ■ 4. u youne orchard standing on the vergin soil of the heavv 



m the southern portion 01 Berrien county, where . id ^ ^ cigui luc uctny 



^, , ^ u ] • iu i. 4. 1 ^ A -ru timbered lands, composed of loam or clay, was often 



the largest orchards m the state were planted. Ihe , . , ., 



, ^ , 1 , , 1 r 1 the hrst to go. while the neglected one on a sand drift, 



disease spread from orchard to orchard for several ^^^^ exhausted, was the last to yield to the fell 



years almost unnoticed, even by the fruit growers. destroyer. The owner of one orchard might remove 



Peaches were sent to market tinctured with the dis- his affected trees at sight and destroy them, but 



ease, and relished by the average consumer, because they jf his immediate neighbors neglected to do the same, 



were in advance of the market. The steady march of all perished together. On the other hand, whenever 



the disease was directly northward, along the east shore one or two dozen peach growers, joining farms, were 



of Lake Michigan. In 1886, it had reached the northern all agreed in removing and destroying every diseased tree 



boundary of Allegan county, beyond the Kalamazoo at first sight, the orchards escaped. The most of these 



y peach growers have a majority of their old trees still left 



\%.../:^— -, and bearing good crops of fruit. Most of the orchards 



Ofond Hovsnlpvy/yj in which the trees have been removed promptly and the 



|oTTW»w\X'°' vacancies filled, have grown and borne good crops of 



^ 11/^ ; fruit ; and strange as it may seem, they have developed 

 0^ Ijjjj 'r no yellows to speak of, probably not one in a thousand. 



SaugotLck|o___^^^^^^^>^^ \t £]-st, only a few pomologists could be made to be- 



^ m ; lieve that the disease is contagious. Nor has it ever 



itj '§ r^.. ^ fSt^'^ been proved beyond the possibility of a doubt that such 



South Movenj^ ; . jg ^ fsict, but circumstantial evidence has been so strong 



BUREN ; \°°^ J 1 • *u ^ 1 11 i XI.- i_ 



l/JI-----. ' ^-^^ and conclusive that. nearly all iruit growers on this shose 



/llr"^. ' agree that the disease is contagious. At any rate, there 



M Benton Horbor// .i is no more argument in the pomological meetings at. 



' ''• tempting to deny the fact. Some believe it is dissemin- 



^CHICAGO ( / '< ''^^ bees, others by the pruning knife or saw, 



V 1 while a much larger number think it is from the pollen 



\TJ borne through the atmosphere by the winds. There have 



^ I MDIiidf'i A been a number of cases in the vicinity of South Haven 



and Casco,* which give very strong evidence in proof of 



River. This being the northern limit of e.xtensive peach j^e disease being contagious under certain conditions, 



orchards at that time, the disease stopped, after a full Qj, ^^e side of a highway an orchard of a few hundred 



twenty years of a steady march of death. The only j^ggg^ ^^hout fifteen years old, was struck with the yel- 



check it ever received in its onward course of devasta- i^^^g^ the owner refused to cut them down until after 



tion was the use of the a.xe, the grub-hoe and fire, and he had gathered the fruit. The third year following, 



in all locahties where this merciless remedy was resort- ti^jg orchard was all dead. On the opposite side of this 



ed to most promptly, will be found the best orchards 



of to-day, both old and young- * Casco adjoins South Haven on the north.— Ed. 



