THE PEACH BLIGHT.

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1842, 26 April 1884, Page 4

THE PEACH BLIGHT.

Below wo quote atleDgth from an American work byClurles Downing entitled ' 'Downing's Selected Fruits," in which he »efers to a certain disease of the Pcacli tree, and from the description given of tliis disease, 'known in America as the yellows for at least half a century, it is evidently the same that has attacked the peach in New Zealand. No doubt this blight has reached us through the propagation of American varieties from imported stones, &c. The peculiarities of the spread of the disease will bo recognised, and the conclusion we have coma to will be coincided with by all who have watched the spread of the disease :— Thk Yellows.—This most serious malady seems to belong exclusively to this country, and to attack only the peach-tree. Although it has been the greatest enemy of the peach-plantor for the last thirty years—rendering the life of the tree uncertain, and frequently spreading over and destroying the orchards of whole districts,—still little is known of its nature, and nothing with certainty of its cause. Many slight observers have confounded it with the effects of the psach-borer, but all persons ■who have carefully examined it know that the two aie totally distinct. Trees may frequently be attacked by both the yellows and the boier, but hundreds die of the yellows when the most minute inspection of the loots and bianchea can discover no insect or visible cause. Still we believe proper cultivation will rid our orchards of this malady ; and this belief is in part borne out by experiments under our own inspection. In order to combat it successfully, it is necessary that the symptoms should be clearly understood. Si/mp.om. —The Yellows appears to be a constitutional disease, do external cause having yet been assigned for it Its infallible symptoms aie the following; :—: — 1. The production upon the branches of very ifcndm, wiry shoots, a few inches long, and beat ing starved diminutive leaves. These shoots arc not protiudcd from the extiemities, but from latent buds on the main poi tions of the stem and larger branches. The lea\ es are very narrow and small, quite distinct from those of the natural sue, and are cither pale yellow or destitute of colour. 2. The prematuic ripening of the fruit. This takes place from two to four weeks eai her than the proper season. The fiist season of the disease it grows nearly to its natuial size ; the following season it is not more than half or a fourth of that si/c ; but it is always marked externally (whatever may be the natural colour) with specks and large spots of purplish led. Internally the flesh is more deeply colouied, especially around the stone, than in the natural state. Either of the foregoing symptoms (and sometimes the second appeal s a siason in advance of the first) aie undeniable signs of the Yellows, and they arc not pioduced by the attacks of the woim or other malady. We may add to them the following additional icmarks :—: — It is established beyond question that the Yellows can always be propagated by budding or grafting fiom a diseased tree ; that the stock, whether peach or almond, also takes the disease, and finally perishes; and that the seed? of the diseased trees pioduce joung trees in •which the Yellows sooner or later bicaks out. To this mc may add th.it the peach, budded on the plum or apricot, is also known to die with the Yellows. Very frequently only a single branch, or one side of a tree, w ill be affected the first season. But the next year it invariably spreads thiough its whole S3 rstem. Frequently tiecs badly affected will die the next year. But usually it will last, growing more and moic feeble every year, for seveial seasons. The roots, on digging up the tice, do not appear in the least diseased. The soil does not appear materially to increase or lessen the liability to the Yellows, though it fiist ongmatcd, and is most destructive in light, waim, sandy soils. Lastly, it is the nearly universal opinion of all orchai (lists that the Yellows is a coning iota disease, spreading giadually, but certainly, from tiee to tiee through whole oichaids. It was conjectured by the late William Prince that this takes place when the tiees aie in blossom, the contagion being cairied from tree to tree in the pollen by the bees and the wind. This view is a questionable one, and it is rendeied moie doubtful by the fact that e.xpciiinents have been made by dusting the pollen of diseased trees upon the blossoms of healthy ones without communicating the Yellows. We considei the contagions natuic of this malady an unsettled point. Theoretically, we aie disinclined to belie\c it, as we know nothing analogous to it in the vegetable kingdom But on the othf r hand it would appeal to be pincti^ally true, and foi all piactical pinpoes we would base our ad\ ice upon the supposition that the disease is contagions. For it is only in tho'-e p.n:ts of the Atlai.tic States vsheie every vestige, of a tiee. showing the Yellows i\ immediately tltstroyed, that we have seen a letuin of the normal health and longevity of the tree.* Causes of the Yellou ,— No wiiter has yet ventuied to assign a theory, supported by any facts, which would explain the cause of tlu^ malady We theiefoie advance our opinion with some diffidence, but not without much confidence in its truth. We believe the malady called the Yellows to be a constitutional taint existing in many Amencan \aueties of the peach, and produced, in the fir-t place, by bad cultivation and the consequent emanation aiising from successive over-crops. Afterwards it has been established and perpetuated by sowing the seeds of the enfeebled tiee, either to obtain \aiieties or for stocks. Let us look for a moment into the history of the peach culture in the United (States. For almost a hundicd yrars after this tree was mtioduced into this country it was largely cultivated, especially in Virginia, Maiyland, and New Jersey, as we have already stated, in perfect freedom fiom such disease, and with the least possible care. The gicat natural fertility of the soil was unexhausted, and the land occupied by orchards was seldom or never cropped. Most of the soil of these States, however, though at first naturally rich, was light and sandy, and in course of time became comparatively exhausted. The peach tiee, always pioductive to an excess in this climate, in the impoverished soil was no longer able to recruit its energies by annual growth, and gradually became more and more enfeebled and short-lived. About, ISOO, or a few yeais before, attention was attracted in the neighbourhood of Philadelphia to the sudden decay and death of the orchards without apparent cause.

* The following extrct from some remarks on the Yellows by that careful observer, Noyes .Darling, Esq., of New Haven, Ct., we recommend as worthy the attention of those who think the disease contagious. They do not seem to indicate that the disease spieads from a given point of contagion, but breaks out in spots. It is clear to our mind that in this, and hundreds of other similar cases, the disease was inherent in the trees, they being the seedlings of diseased parents. " When the disease commences in a garden or orchard containing a considerable j number of trees, it does not attack all at once. It'breaks out in patches which are progressively enlarged, till eventually all the trees become victims to the malady. Thus, in an orchard of two and a half acres, all the trees were healthy in 1827. The next year two trees on the west side of the orchard, within a rod of each other, took the Yellows. In 1829, six trees on , the east s;de of the orchard were attacked ; •^five of them standing within a circle of r\four roods diameter. A similar fact ia now apparent in my neighbourhood. A fine lot of '200 young tree?, last year in perfect health, now show disease in two spots near the opposite ends of the lot, having exactly six diseased trees in each patch contagious to each other, while all the other trees are free from any inarka of disease."—'Cultivator.

Prom Philadelphia and Delaware the disease gradually extended to New Jer&oy, where, in 1814, it was so prevalent aa to destroy a considerable part of all the orchards. About three or four years later it appeared on the banks of the Hudson (or from 1812 to lSlo), gradually and slowly extending northward and westward to the remainder of the State. Its progress to Connecticut was taking place at the same time, a few here and there showing the disease, until it became well-known (though not generally prevalent) throughout most of the warmer parts of New England. (To lie Continued).

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