398 



PEACH YELLOWS IN MICHIGAN. 



highway was a very thrifty young orchard, six years 

 planted, of over two thousand trees. No evidence of 

 yellows had been seen in this young orchard until the 

 second year after the old one was attacked, when about 

 one do?en trees next to the highway were affected with 

 the disease and promptly removed as soon as discovered, 

 and burned. The next year about forty of these beau- 

 tiful young trees full of peaches developed yellows, both 

 in tree and fruit These trees were promptly removed 

 from the orchard with care and likewise destroyed. The 

 old orchard was also taken out, root and branch, and 

 committed to the flames. The next year no yellows ap- 

 peared in this young orchard, nor has there been any 

 trace of it since. Several cases could be cited equally 

 as strong, but one more will be sufficient to note at this 

 time. 



A prominent peach grower had a very fine bearing 

 orchard of two thousand trees. Just over the division 

 line was another orchard of about twelve hundred trees 

 of the same age. The first orchard came out with the 

 yellows, mostly near the division line — about forty trees. 

 When the owner was notified by the commissioner to 

 cut down the diseased trees, he threatened to shoot the 

 first man who entered the premises for that purpose. 

 The result was, that in three years his orchard was all 

 dead. The owner of the adjoining orchard found a few 

 trees showing the disease the second year, but he quickly 

 cut and burned. During the next three years, over two 

 hundred trees were taken out, and no more yellows ap- 

 peared. The vacancies have been filled, and a good 

 average orchard is still left, worth two thousand dollars. 

 The orchard is now sixteen years old, and bearing good 

 crops of fruit. I think this is ver}- strong evidence that 

 the disease is contagious. 



By request of the fruit growers of West Michigan, the 

 Legislature of this state enacted a law, known as "the 

 Yellows Law," for the repression of this disease. The 

 fruit growers of the peach belt can hardly estimate 

 the direct benefit to them of this enactment. It may 

 be said in truth, that all fruit growers who faithfully 

 and honestly carried out the provisions of this law were 

 well paid by so doing. In most cases, the disease was 

 not only arrested in their own orchards, but the spread 

 of the contagion to their immediate neighbors was also 

 largely prevented. The peach growers of Berrien 

 county have often declared that if they could ha\e had 

 the benefits of that law the same as Van Buren and Al- 

 legan counties did, they could have saved the larger part 

 of their orchards. But ther^was no union of action in 

 Berrien county, either in discovering the developments 

 of the disease, or enforcing the law. 



Of course Van Buren and Allegan counties had a fierce 

 combat with the ignorance and prejudice which more 

 manifested in many instances, in strong opposition to 

 the will of the majority. It is now an admitted fact by 

 nearly all intelligent fruit growers that all we have left 

 of the old original orchards — many of them from sixteen 



to twenty years old — have been saved by the strict ob- 

 servance of this law. Nor is there any doubt now exist- 

 ing in the minds of nine-tenths of the fruit growers of this 

 shore, that all of the younger orchards have been kept free 

 from attack of this disease by " stamping out" the virus 

 in the old trees. The South Haven and Casco Pomo. 

 logical Society is not discussing this vexed question any 

 more, only to hear the reports of the commissioners once 

 a year. These reports have kept us posted on the num- 

 ber of trees cut out, also if any diseased peaches are be- 

 ing shipped from this port to injure the reputation of 

 our fruit growers in the market. In a word, we are 

 masters of the situation, and firmly believe that we can 

 " hold the fort." 



For a time, when the disease was moving to the north- 

 ward at the rate of about five miles per annum, the ma- 

 jority of Michigan peach growers began to lose faith in 

 the business. Very few had the courage to set out new 

 orchards ; and more were willing to await developments. 

 When the tide of devastation was checked, all began to 

 take on new courage and prepared to plant new orchards, 

 except in Berrien county, where the destruction had been 

 so complete that no new orchards w-ere planted until the 

 years 1S85-6. It is worthy of note here, that those who 

 had been the most prompt and thorough in destroying 

 their diseased trees, were the first to plant new orchards, 

 showing their faith by their works. Since confidence 

 has been restored, the planting of new orchards has in- 

 creased beyond all precedent. Although no exact statis- 

 tics can be furnished, it is safe to say that more peach 

 trees have been planted within the last five years in Van 

 Buren and Allegan counties than ever before in any ten 

 years. Berrien county is following, with more caution, 

 yet with very encouraging prospects of future success. 

 The St. Joseph and Benton Harbor fruit region has 

 learned a lesson that will never be forgotten, nor yet 

 repeated in Berrien county. 



A very great majority of the South Haven and Casco 

 fruit growers always acknowledged the presence of the 

 yellows in their peach orchards ; yet it was a hard mat- 

 ter for several years to convince many of them that the 

 best thing to do was to destroy every diseased tree, then 

 and there. It certainly requires a good deal of courage 

 and self-sacrifice to lay the axe to the root of a peach 

 tree from four to seven years old, and full of beautiful 

 peaches. The diseased peach is very high-colored, and 

 has, in contrast with the green leaves, a most luscious 

 appearance, yet the flavor is very poor and insipid But 

 just as soon as these same fruit growers were satisfied 

 that it was to their interest to destroy a tree, they showed 

 no mercy. Whether a tree had five or fifteen baskets of 

 fruit, it made no difference; the order was carried into 

 execution. So the work of demolition went on until 

 nearly every vestige of the arch enemy of the peach 

 grower was cut out, burned out and "stamped out," 

 with the encouraging results I have briefly noted. 



South Haven, Mich. J. G. Ramsdell. 



