The record-union., 1891-10-20
FARM And ORCHARD.
Fruit Tree Diseases Prevalent in
Eastern Cities.
Peach Yel1ows and Peach Rosette-
Symptoms of the Diseases-Peanut
OII-General Farm Notes.

the future success of fruit growing in Cal
lfornia depends largely upon preventing
The introduction of various fruit tree dis
eases which are prevalent throughout
many of the Eastern States. Importing
trees from the East, especially from States
where the yellows has appeared, is very
dangerous, and every person interested
IN the tuture Of fruit growing in Califor-
MA ought to discourage the practice in
every way. The yellows is spreading
throughout the East with great rapidity
and is most alarming, threatening the de-
struction of the peach industry every
where. The disease now prevails from
Massachusetts to Virginia, and westward
to the great lakes and the Mississippi
River. The peach-growing sections of
Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York,
New Jersey, Ohio, Delaware, Maryland,
Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois,
Michigan, Arkansas, Pennsylvania and
North Texas are suffering from its raw
ages, and, SO far, nothing can stop its de-
StructiVe course. 1t is most singular
and obscure disease everywhere.
AS an illustration which will apply, to
certain extent, to all the districts, there
may be mentioned Newcastle County,
Del. This county has always been con-
adhered the largest peach-grOwing region
of the East, and, in 1879, the acreage de-
voted to the culture of the peach in that
county was estimated at II 500 acres, but
since that time has been steadily on the
decline, caused by the yellows. In 1880
no orchards of any consequence were
found between Middletown and Nc
DonOugh, which formerly was so thickly
planted. Large districts, once almost en-
tlrely devoted TO peach orchards, are now
bare and do not contain single tree. 1t
fra1 -n
trees in Newcastle County in 1875, and
$50, 427 baskets of peaches were shipped
shat same year. Newcastle and Middle
town are no longer the center of the
peach region, and the peaches now
shipped from there are hardly taken into
account.
Large orchards in Maryland and Della
ware that once were very productive
have been swept out of existence by the
Scourge. Thousands of acres have been
taken out and many more will be up
rooted and burned. The scourge is also
doing havoc in many sections where
previous to 1888, it was not known to eX-
ist. Such remnants of orchards are seen
everywhere, and the stumps remain only
as evidence of its destructive work. That
there is danger ofintroducing the disease
on nursery trees cannot be doubted, from
the fact that in the East it has been taken
from one locality to another in this way,
the trees developing the disease the same
season after planting.
The first cases OF yellows that have been
found in new districts are generally, if
not always IN young trees imported from
infected localities. ''YellowS is disease
Of haste and waste; the fruit ripens too
soon, the buds push too soon, assimila
ton is dietgrbed, the stored starch and
other food materials are wasted by exces-
sive and unnatural growth and the en-
tire vitality Of the tree is exhausted in the
State is thus far free from the disease, and
the introduction Of all trees from the
Eastern States should be prohibited by
stringent legislative enacUments and
county ordinances. From time to time
we have warned fruit-growers Of the dan
ger o. introducing dangerous insect pests
and diseases not known in this State;
yet, strange as 1t may appear, and in the
face OF all these warnings, many persons
axe eager to buy trees grown ontside OF
the State, principally on account of their
cheapness.
disease of the peach and nectarine, pre-
valent throughout many of the Eastern
States where the peach is grown, and
peculiar to America as far as known. 1t
has also been observed on the almond
and apricot. "Within q few wears after
1t was discovered, yelloWs appeared in
all the Atlantic Coast States north Of Fir-
ginia, and caused great loss, destroying
IN few decades, hundreds of orchards
and thousands Of trees in Delaware. New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and
Connecticut and putting an entire stop 10
peach growing in many sections.''
Thus far, mycologists have failed to
ascribe the cause Of the yellows. It has,
however, been attributed to various
causes, such as severe freezing in winter,
excessive rainfall, precipitation, para
sites, etc; but these causes have been
carefully looked into aud the yellows
found thriving under all such conditions.
All the com bined efforts OF the experts
employed have not yet detected the cause
OF the malady, nor affected a cure in q
single instance. 1T has been attributed
70 poverlShment of the soil. especially
to deficiency of lime, potash and phos-
phor1c acid, but 1t now occurs in fertile
soil, both virgin and highly improved in
as destructive form as was ever OBJ
served III the most impoverished district,
and is now absent from certain poor,
sandy regions, deficient in the elements
necessary TO the growth of vegetation"
The progress Of the yellows is somewhat
slow in infected trees. II does not cause
Ihe immediate falling or blasting of the
flowers or fruit, but is a serious menace to
peach culture wherever it abounds. The
trees may appear healthy in the spring Of
the year and yet be affected.
SYMPTOMS.
DR.. Erwin F. Smith, on page 90 of his
report, Division of Vegetable Pathology.
Washington QSSS), gives the following
digest of symptoms of the disease:
l. Prematurely ripe, red-spotted fruit.
2. Development, upon the trunk and
branches which bear, or have borne, the
diseased peaches, of secondary or sum
1ner shoots, often in great numbers and
always dwarfed and feeble in appearance.
3. 4 very marked tendency of the buds
on these secondary shoots TO develop the
same season, forming sometimes in this
way, within few months, secondary.
tertiary, quartan and quintan branches.
/. The appearance of the disease the
next spring, in the entire growth Of the
tree, or at least of the diseased parts the
saoot-axes being shortened and the foli-
age dwarfed and sickly, of yellowish or
reddish-brown color and with a greater
or less tendency TO curl from end to end
and to roll sidewise, so that the lower sur
face becomes the convex outer surface.
Sometimes, however, the disease affects
the terminal shoots the same autumn,
causing the winter buds to develop either
before or after the leaves have fallen.
5. 4 slow progress Of the disease from
limb 10 limb, so that, in one or two years,
or at most three years, the whole tree is
involved.
6. Coordinate with the progress of the
disease from part to part, q marked dimi-
mutton of the vitality of the tree, ending
in death.
These are symptoms characteristic of
peach yellows, and they seem to me quite
as definite as those of any specific dis
ease. If peach yellows, as | have seen it
and defined il, is not a specific disease,
due to some constant cause or causes,
then neither is CHAMBERS nor anthrax
nor measles nor smallpox.
PEACH RosETTE.