
          263

[illegible]

Delaware City, Sept. 2, 1887

Mr. Erwin F. Smith,

Dear Sir:

Yours of Aug. 30th, rec'd  My experiments with
peach yellows have been on a very limited scale and have been
mainly in my own garden.

They have run through a period of from <s>ten to</s> twelve to
fifiteen years.  I have budded in different years from twenty-five to
thirty trees with buds taken from yellows trees with the
result, invariably, of giving yellows to th tree budded.

I am perfectly sure that I have conveyed the disease
with the pruning knife and saw, as the disease has made its
first appearance in the parts of the trees first pruned after
having used the tools upon a yellow tree.  The experiments
in pruning have been in, at least, thirty trees.  The seed
I used in my experiments have always been of natural fruit,
some were sent me from North Carolina, the others, from Virginia,
Tennnessee and Kentucky.

I have applied nitrate of potash, kanit [kainit], and wood ashes
but have not succeeded in arresting or preventing the disease.
Upon a farm in Kent Co., Md., which I recently sold to A. C.
        