Vol. LXI No. 2713. 
NEW YORK, JANUARY 25, 1902 
$1 PER YEAR 
DISTRIBUTION OF'THE PEACH "YELLOWS." 
m 
IS ANY SECTION FREE FROM IT. 
“It Cannot Be Fed Out.” 
Is there any section of this country where the Peach 
yellows is not found? What are the dangers of introduc¬ 
ing the disease on nursery stock? Has experience demon¬ 
strated that by giving the highest cultivation and feeding 
we can overcome the effects of this disease? 
It was clearly established several years ago by Dr. 
E. F. 'Smith, of this Department, that there were 
at that time considerable areas in the South where 
Peach yellows was not known to exist. It would, of 
course, be putting it too strong to say that those 
sections are absolutely free from this disease without 
a thorough inspection of the orchards in them. This 
is particularly true of the mountain regions of south¬ 
western Virginia, eastern Tennessee and western 
North Carolina, where the peach trees are chiefly 
seedlings in small orchards about the homes of the 
residents, and where the crop is mostly dried, and does 
not reach market in the fresh state. There can, I think, 
be little doubt that yellows is progressing slowly and 
steadily southward, and occasional 
specimens that have reached us from 
the region in question, convince us 
that it already exists in localities in 
that region. So far as my observa¬ 
tion and experience go, I consider it 
entirely possible to grow sound and 
healthy peach trees in a region where 
yellows exists, provided the seed is 
taken from healthy trees in healthy 
southern orchards, or from healthy 
peach trees in uninfested orchards of 
the vicinity where the trees are to be 
grown. There are numerous orchards 
in western Michigan where yellows 
has been prevalent for about 25 years, 
that have been grown from trees 
raised from seed from the home or¬ 
chards. Some of these orchards have 
attained an age of 15 years or more, 
and they show no more cases of 
raised from seed from the home or- 
peach yellows than trees beside them 
portant thing, in my opinion, is to 
secure seed from trees that are 
strong, vigorous and free from dis¬ 
ease; then to grow them in a nur¬ 
sery as far from infested orchards 
as is practicable. 
From my observation, no possible 
care and fertilizing will prevent 
peach trees from infection with the Peach yellows, 
or restore to health trees that once show the 
characteristic symptoms of this disease. It there¬ 
fore behooves the planter to secure stock that 
is sound, and from an uninfested locality if pos¬ 
sible. I believe that up to this date no cases 
of Peach yellows have been discovered on the 
Pacific coast, and that this is also true of Texas and 
the country farther west, New Mexico and Arizona. 
So long as the exact cause of this disease remains 
undetermined it would, of course, be idle to theorize 
upon the reason for this continued exemption of the 
Pacific Coast, notwithstanding the fact that large 
shipments of peach trees were made for many years 
to California from sections of the East where the 
disease was prevalent at that time. wm. a. taylor. 
U. 'S. Department of Agriculture. 
The Situation in Kentucky. 
Without having studied yellows with special refer¬ 
ence to its distribution in the United States I am not 
in a position to say more jthan that the disease is not 
common in Kentucky and Tennessee, if it occurs here 
at all. 'Since the inspection work of this State was 
placed in my hands (in 1897) I have kept this disease 
constantly in mind when making my annual round. 
Probably no one else has ever gone over the whole 
State so thoroughly with the object of detecting dis¬ 
eases of fruit trees. I have yet to see the first genuine 
case of yellows on a Kentucky tree. It should be 
stated, however, that several very intelligent, prac¬ 
tical fruit growers have assured me that they have 
observed some cases of yellows in the State. As more 
and more time passes I find myself becoming some¬ 
what skeptical about even these reports, though I have 
implicit confidence in the honesty of my informants. 
To your question whether the experience of the past 
20 years justifies people in saying that there is no 
great danger in buying diseased trees, provided we 
give them the best of care and feeding, I would reply 
that the best experience does not justify such asser¬ 
tions any more than it justifies the claim, sometimes 
made, that after all San Jose scale is not a very seri¬ 
ous enemy of deciduous fruit trees. Periods of im¬ 
munity from such diseases sometimes lead people to 
become careless; then such assertions appear. A 
period of special virulence of attack may follow that 
will lead to a sudden change of opinion. 
Kentucky Exp. 'Station. [Prof.] ir. garman. 
Prof. Garman’s contention that we should not buy 
diseased trees, with the idea of feeding them into 
vigor, is supplemented by Mr. Hale’s declaration be¬ 
low in favor of pits from luseious fruit borne by vig¬ 
orous trees. 
“ Yellows ” Bad as Smallpox. 
There are some sections of the far South and on the 
Pacific coast where the Peach yellows does not exist, 
but in all the northern country and along down the 
Blue Ridge, as far south as Chattanooga, Tenn., it is 
more or less prevalent, and it is nonsense to talk 
about being “absolutely free from yellows if you get 
pits of trees from the Carolinas or Tennessee.” Peach 
trees or pits from central and south Georgia, Florida, 
central or south Alabama, Mississippi, Texas and 
California will, I believe, be found absolutely free 
from any taint of the yellows; but from any other sec¬ 
tion of America there is more or less danger. There 
is some unintentional humbug in a good many nur¬ 
serymen’s talk about “Tennessee natural pits” being 
the best to propagate upon. Those “Tennessee nat¬ 
urals” coming from Tennessee, eastern Kentucky, 
western Virginia and North Carolina are often from 
scrubs and bushes that are lacking in vigor, that just 
produce a peach pit with a little skin over it; from 
my experience I would rather have the pit from a big 
luscious peach grown on a vigorous, well-cultivated 
tree, and whether it is a budded stock or natural I 
don’t believe makes any difference. In 1890, when 
there was a general failure of the peach crop over a 
large part of the United States, and peach pits were 
a scarce article, many eastern nurserymen had to se¬ 
cure their stock from the canneries of California, and 
they produced one of the finest lots of seedlings that 
has ever been grown. In my Georgia orchard, where 
the Elberta, Belle of Georgia, Mountain Rose, Stump, 
etc., grow to highest perfection, and the largest and 
most luscious peaches often go to the evaporator, 
those pits are saved for our nursery work, and after 
10 or 12 years of experience I am convinced that for 
my nursery and orchard work they are more valuable 
than a lot of so-called “Tennessee 
naturals.” I purpose to use only 
that class of pits in the future, and 
also to cut all my -buds from fruiting 
trees that produce the very best fruit 
of their kind. 
The promiscuous cutting of buds 
year after year from the nursery 
row, so as to propagate trees easily 
and cheaply, has led to a good deal 
of mix-up, and at the same time pro¬ 
pagate# inferior specimens of our 
best standard varieties. In orchards 
of from 10,000 to 30,000 trees of any 
leading standard variety there are 
some trees that produce much larger 
and better fruit than others of the 
same variety, and by annually cut¬ 
ting buds from these best trees I be¬ 
lieve that each variety of fruit can 
be greatly improved. As to the sug¬ 
gestion about there being “no danger 
in planting an orchard with yellows 
pits or diseased trees, provided they 
be given the best care and feeding,” 
I say strongly and emphatically 
don’t. A tree or a pit with any taint 
of the yellows in it will give a dis¬ 
eased tree and inferior fruit, and 
spread the contagion to nearby trees, 
no matter how good the cultivation 
and how liberal the feeding. You might just as well 
bring a case of smallpox into the family as to bring 
a case of yellows into the peach orchard, and hope to 
escape .the penalty. j. h. hate. 
A CLASS IN FARM PRACTICE. 
If we are not mistaken the first class to complete 
a short college course in farm practice is pictured on 
this page at Fig. 21. The event is well worthy of 
record in The R. N.-Y. We think Rhode Island has 
given the first course of exactly this character. The 
three instructors (seated) are, at the right Prof. 
Card, well-known to R. N.-Y.. readers, in the center 
President Washburn, and at the left Prof. H. J. 
Wheeler. The following facts about the class are 
interesting: 
“This short course has proved a success, even 
though the numbers in attendance were not large. 
Eight men were regularly enrolled. Beside those one 
of our regular students attended most of their lec¬ 
tures, and the boy you see at one end came to the 
College when the course was nearly over and at¬ 
tended the remainder of the time. We obtained a 
