Vol. LXI. No. 2718 
NEW YORK, MARCH 1 1902 
$1 PER YEAR 
AN EXPERIENCE WITH PEACH YELLOWS. 
THINGS HARD TO EXPLAIN. 
What Can Be Done About It? 
The disease known as the yellows in peach trees is 
of such vital importance to peach growers, and is so 
little understood, that all information about it is of 
value. I therefore offer you this statement of my ex¬ 
perience with about 3,000 peach trees which have 
passed their fifth and sixth years. My orchards are 
in what is generally known as the Pine Island dis¬ 
trict, situated in the Vernon Valley of Sussex Co., New 
Jersey. The farm has a northern exposure, the land 
starting on the mountain side, and sloping to the 
brook level by a series of natural terraces. Orchard 
A, containing about 1,500 trees, starts at the brook 
level, and rises rapidly to the line of the main road to 
a height of perhaps 200 feet. Orchard B lies south of 
this, and is separated from it by a meadow about 400 
feet wide; the land has a slight decline, and is a few 
feet higher than the 
highest part of orchard 
A. Orchard C is on the 
same level as B, and sep¬ 
arated from it by one 
held about 600 feet wide. 
So much for the situa¬ 
tion. The soil of all the 
orchards is a loam. Field 
A was always considered 
a fine field for crops or 
grass until I planted it. 
The soil of the other 
fielus is a stiffer sort. 
Both fields, B and C, 
were wet when I bought 
the farm, and I was told 
by an old neighbor that 
it would be impossible to 
grow trees on them on 
this account. But a very 
few feet of drain tile re¬ 
moved all that trouble, 
and I would desire no 
better soil for an orchard. 
Orchard A was plant¬ 
ed in the Spring of 1895. 
The ground was, of 
course, plowed, and the 
trees were cut back to 
bare stumps, about two 
feet high. The other or¬ 
chards were planted the 
following Spring in the 
same way. All the or¬ 
chards have had, from the start, the best of care. The 
trees were pruned of suckers the first Summer and 
kept pruned in the following years. Orchard A was 
cropped with potatoes the first year, and has not been 
cropped since. The other orchards were cropped with 
corn the first two years. The ground has been plowed 
and harrowed as it should be, and, in addition, I have 
had the trees spaded around every Spring, for a dis¬ 
tance of about three feet, when they were grubbed. 
I may mention that the grubs have never been abun¬ 
dant. Orchard A received a dressing of muriate of 
potash in the Summer of 1897, and a dressing of lime 
in 1898. When the trees in the other orchards were 
set out, I mixed with the soil of each hole a portion 
of Mapes’s fruit fertilizer, and these orchards had 
lime in 1899. In the Spring of 1900 and 1901, when 
crops were expected, all the orchards received a good 
dressing of wood ashes, which I get in fine condition 
from a near-by lime kiln. So much for cultivation 
and fertilization. 
In 1899, when the largest orchard was four years 
old and the others three, the trees bore a little fruit. 
We sold 278 baskets. Orchard A was set with Moun¬ 
tain Rose, Oldmixon, Beers Smock, Stump, Late Craw¬ 
ford and what were bought for Keyport White. The 
other orchards were set with Mountain Rose (sold to 
me as Stevens Rareripe), Rareripe and Bray in or¬ 
chard B, and Reeves Favorite and Bray in orchard C. 
In this first bearing year we noticed symptoms of the 
yellows in orchard A and something of the same in 
orchard C. Every tree showing such symptoms was 
cut out and burned. In 1900 the trees in all the or¬ 
chards were overloaded with fruit, except the Reeves 
in orchard C; these were very “shy.” We thinned the 
fruit a great deal, had a fine crop, and marketed over 
5,000 baskets. A great many trees in orchard A show¬ 
ed the yellows unmistakably. I do not think that a 
dozen trees along the highway, the highest part of the 
orchard, escaped, and the infected trees were in all 
parts of the ground. In orchard B only two trees 
showed the taint, and this orchard was pronounced 
the finest young orchard of its size in the district. 
But in orchard C many of the Reeves, which again 
bore shyly, were affected, and the Brays, in the higher 
section, “forced” alarmingly. The trees in orchard A 
set for Keyport Whites, proved to bear a small, 
worthless peach, and without exception these trees 
“forced.” I marked all the diseased trees in all the 
orchards, and last Spring they were cut down and 
burned, and the stumps were pulled out. 
In 1901 we had another big crop. The trees were 
not so overloaded as the year before, and required 
therefore less thinning, and the fruit was larger 
throughout. In orchard A the Crawfords did best, 
showing few cases of yellows. The Oldmixons bore 
a small crop, and the fruit was largely forced. The 
Beers Smock all seemed to “force.” Orchard B re¬ 
tained its good reputation, but there were individual 
cases of “forced” fruit. In orchard C the Reeves bore 
heavily while the Brays were almost without fruit. 
But the Reeves “forced” badly (few of them seemed 
really healthy), and so did the few peaches on the 
Brays. One thing should be added about the two 
younger orchards. The trees when received to set out 
in the Spring of 1896 were very poor ones, the buds 
being dry, and showing evidence of being some time 
out of the ground. On inquiry, I learned that the 
local nurseryman had bought several carloads of trees 
in the South in order to fill his orders, and 1 evi¬ 
dently got these trees. Perhaps 25 per cent of them 
did not live, and I mended the orchards the next 
Spring with Gerard Smock, Bray and Rareripe. Al¬ 
most all the Gerard Smock forced last year, as badly 
as did the smaller Beers. 
My experience, to sum up, has convinced me that 
careful cultivation and fertilization are no safeguard 
against the yellows. If this was not so, my orchards 
should be free from the disease. I have found no pro¬ 
tection in cutting out the affected trees. Indeed, 1 
have no doubt that the trees which later yielded to 
the yellows had the 
germs of the disease in 
themselves, just as much 
as had the trees that first 
showed the symptoms. I 
expect all the trees to go 
in the same way in a few 
years. Some varieties 
are more liable to the 
disease (in my orchards, 
at least) than others, 
witness the condition of 
the Smock. I can offer 
no explanation why or¬ 
chard B has so nearly 
escaped, which orchard 
C, with the same soil and 
situation, is already 
nearly ruined. Orchard 
C, too, was set with 
southern trees, as I as¬ 
sume them to have been, 
just as was orchard B. 
My belief is that the yel¬ 
lows is a disease that is 
inherent in the trees 
when set out, either aris¬ 
ing in the stock grown 
from the pit, or in the 
buds. If I expected to 
continue peach culture 
on an extensive scale, 1 
would raise my own 
trees, obtaining the pits 
and the buds under my 
own supervision, from some district where the trees 
were assuredly healthy. I am by no means certain 
that I should, in this way, escape the yellows, but l 
would have the only chance of doing so. To buy trees 
of a nurseryman, who gets his pits for stock from 
some cannery, and then buds from trees that may be 
infected or not, is simply to be willing to grow an or¬ 
chard with a probability that two or three crops are 
the very best that can be expected of it. w. a. linn. 
Hackensack, N. J. 
R. N.-Y.—Mr. Linn has this to say about planting 
peach trees: “As to root-pruning, all the Sussex 
growers of my acquaintance cut the roots back when 
planted. I do, shaving off all the fine fibers with the 
shears, and leaving only a short tap. My trees, with 
cultivation (not over-cultivation, which I consider a 
waste of money), have taken so firm a hold in the 
ground that, when I pulled up the infected trees last 
Spring, I had to employ a man with a yoke of oxen 
and a team of horses in addition to pull them up. He 
said he never had such a job. Shallow cultivation, to 
keep a covering of loose soil around the roots, I con¬ 
sider advisable.” 
TIIE JERSEY COW BROWNELL’S RISSA. Fig. 54. See Page 151. 
