THE PEACH BLIGHT. (Concluded from last issue.)

Waikato Times, Volume XXII, Issue 1843, 29 April 1884, Page 4

THE PEACH BLIGHT. (Concluded from last issue.)

It should be here remarked, that though the disease had been considerably noticed in Maryland and the Middle States pro viously, yet it was by no means general until about the close of the war of 1812 At this tune wheat and other grain crop* boie very high prices, and the falling feitihty of the peach orchard soils of those States was suddenly still more lowered by a heavy system of cropping between the trees without returning anything to the soil. Still the peach was planted, pioduced a few heavy crops, and declined from sheer feebleness ami want of sustenance. As it was the custom of many orehardi-fcs to raise then own seedling tices, and as almost all nurserymen gatheied the stones ti/dt*crlmimtcly for stocks, it is evident that the constitutional debility of the parent trees would naturally be inheuted to a greater or less degree by the seedlings. Still the system of allowing the tree to exhaust itself by heavy and lepeated crops in a light soil was adhered to, and generation after generation of seedlings, each more enfeebled than the former, at last produced a completely sickly and feeble stock of peach-trees in those districts. The ereat abundance of this fruit caused it to find its way moic or less into all the markets on the sea-coast. The stones of the enfeebled Southern tiees were thus earned noith, and, being esteemed by many better than those of home giowth, weic evciywhere moic or less planted. They brought with them the enfeebled and tainted constitution deiived from the patent stock. They repioduced almost the same disease in the new soil; and thus, little by little, the Yellows spicad fiom its original neighbourhood, below Philadelphia, to the whole noithern and eastern sections of the Union. At this moment, 1845, it is slowly but giadually moving West; though the nch and deep soils of the Western alluvial bottoms will, pcihaps, for a considerable time, even without care, over-power the onu'inal tamt of the trees and stones receiv cd fiom the East Let us now look a little moie closely into the nature of this enfeebled state of the peach-tree which we call the Yellows. Eveiy good gardener well knows that if he dcsiies to iaise a healthy and vigorous seedling plant, lie must select the seed fiom a patent plant that is itself decidedly healthy. Lindlcy justly and concisely remaiks : ".All seeds will not equally pi oduce v igoious seedlings; but the healthiness of the new plant will correspond with that of the seed fiom which it spiang. For this leason it ]•> not sulficient to sow a seed to obtain a given plant; but in all cases, when any importance is attached to the lesult, the plumpest and healthiest seeds should be selected, if the gieatest, vigour is required in the seedling, and feeble or less perfectly formed seeds, when it is desirable to check natuial lu\uiiancc." " Again, Dr Van Mons. whose cxpenence in riUMng seedling fnut-tiees was more extrusive than that of any other man, declaims it as his opinion that the more frequently a tice 13 lepioduccl continuous! 1/ from seed, the more feeble and short-lived is the seedling pioduced. Still more, we all know that certain peculiaiitios of constitution or habit can be piopagated by grafting, by blips and even by seeds. Tims the vioicqntcd foliage, which is a disease of some sort, is propagated forevei by budding, and the disposition to mildew of some kinds of peaches is continued almost always in the sculling*. That the peach ticc is pccuhaily ton-taut 111 any constitutional variation, tin; Xuhnuit is a well known pi oof. That the fiiiil-ticc is only an accidental vaiictj ot the peach, and >ct it is continually lepioduccd with a smooth skin from stcd. It is not evident, from these piomises, that the lonstinil ot< m// uj the seals of mi ci,ftrbltil slock 0/ p' in his v mild vnlionlh/ produce 11 sii I, /»/ mid disirrstil line of furs ' The seedlings w ill at fust often appear healthy when the patent had been only partially diseased, but the malady will sooner or later .show itself, and cspecialh' when the tice is allowed to pioduce an over-crop. That foor coil and over-beating will produce great debility 111 any fruit tree, is too evident to need much illustration. Even the apple, that haidiest 01 chard tiee, lequhcs a whole year to iccover from the exhaustion ot its powcis caused by a full crop The gioat natural lnxuuance of the peach enables it to lay in new fruit buds while the brandies are still loaded with fimt, and thus, except in strong soil, if left to itself, it is soon enfeebled, Theie aie some facts in our eveiy-day observation which may be adduced in pioof of this tiieoiy. In the (hs-t place, the \aiieties of this tice alwa\s most subject to this disease me thu i/il/mt jyim/us ; and tl'ev, it is well known, also produce thu heaviest 01 ops Moie than nine tenths of the victims. \\h°n the disease (iist appealed, wcic the vcllovvflpshed peaches. On the other hand, the white fleshed kinds (tho-e white and led externally) aie much moic lately attacked ; msoiiicpaits nev ci They aie generally less vigouious, and bear moie modciate ciops. And it is well worth remarking that ceitain fine old sorts, the ends of the branches ot w Inch have a peculiar )»i/dnnd appearance 'such as the old Red Rareupe, the E.uly Anne, etc ), which seems to check the giowth without impairing the health, aie rarely, if ever, attacl ed by the Yellows. Slow - growing and moderately piodnctive sorts, like the Nutmeg peaches, arc almost entirely exempt. We know an oichaul in the aljoming county whcie every tr-ee has died with the Yellows, except one tree which stood in the centic. It is the Red Nutmeg, and is still in full vigour It is cci tainly ti ue that those sot ts often decay and suddenly die, but wp believe chiefly from the neglect w hich allows tliem to fall a piey to the Veach-boier. Indeed, the frequency with which the Borer has been confounded with the Yellows by ignorant obseivers, renders it much more difficult to ai live at any correct conclusions respecting the contagious nature of the latter disease.t It may be said, in objection to these views, that a disease which is only the cnfeeblement of the constitution of a tree, would not be sufficient to alter so much its whole natuie and duration as the Yellows have done that of the peach. The answer to this is, that the debility produced in a single geneiation ot trees probably would not have led to such effects, or to any settled form of constitutional disease. But it must be borne in mind that the same bad management is to a great extent going on to this day, the whole conntiy over. Every year, in the month of August, the season ot eaily peaches, thousands of bushels of fruit, show ing the infallible symptoms of the Yellows, —a spotted skin, etc., —aie exposed and sold in the maikets. Every year moie 01 less of the stones of these peaches are planted, to produce, in their turn, a geueiation of diseased trees, and every successive generation is even more feeble and sickly than the last ! Even in the North, so feeble has the stock become in many places, that an execssiv c crop of fine fruit is but too frequently followed by the Y 7ellows. In this total ab sence of pioper caie in the selection both of the seed and the trees, followed by equal negligence of good cultivation, is it surprising that the peach has become a tree comparatively difficult to preserve, and proverbially short lived ? Abroad, it is well-known that the peach is subject to a regular system of pruning, and is never allowed to produce sin orer-crop. It is not a little singular, both that the Yellows should never have originated there, and that, notwithstand-

* Theory of Horticulture. t All knowledge relating to the Yellows appears to us as much in obscurity as when this was written. In our experience no one variety seems more liable to be attacked than another, the most vigorous trees being as often affected a,s $hose of moderate growth,—O.D,

ing the the great number of American vaticticsof this fruit that have been repeatedly sent to England and are now giowing there, the disease has never extended itself, or been communicated to other trees, or even been recognised by English or French horticulturists. We must confess these facts appear to us strong proofs in favour of our opinion as to the nature and origin of the malady. Remedy tor the Ycl/owa. —lt may seem to many peisons a difficult task to rid ourselv es of so wide spread a malady as this, yet we are confident that a little perseverance and care will certainly ac comphsh it. In the present uncertainty with regard to its contagions nature, it is much the wisest to reject " the benefit of the doubt," and act upon the principle that it is so. We know at the present moment several gardens where the trees are maintained in good health by immediately rooting out and destroying every tiee as soon as it ahows marked symptoms of the malady. 1. We would therefore commence by exterminating, L ioot and luanch, every tree which has the Yellows. And an oilier tiee should not be planted in the same spot without a lapse of several yeai°, or a thorough removal of the soil. 2 The utmost care should be taken to select seeds for planting from perfectly healthy trees. Nurserymen, to secure this, should gather them from the latest ripening vaiieties, or procure them from the distiicts of the conntiy where the disease is not know n. 3. So far, we have aimed only at procuring a healthy stock of trees. The most impoitinb matter remains to be stated —hoit to pic&crvt, them tn a healthy ,s 'ate. The answer to this U emphatically as follows: I'nitnc blvaddy, pom the fiu>t btamifi I/car, the bhotttinng m sy&tcm of pinning already explained. This will at once seouie your trees against the possibility of overbeaiing and its consequences, and maintain them in vigour and piodnetiveness ior a long time.* It will, in slioit, effectually ptevent the Yellows w hem it docs not already exist in the tice. To whoever will follow these piecautions, puisne this mode of culti\ntion, and adopt at the same time the icmedy foi the Boicr already suggested, wo will confidently insuio healthy, vigorous, long-In ed tiees, and the finest fi int. Will any tensonable man say that so fine a fiuit as the peach does not fully meiit them ? Whether the system of shot toning in and careful cultuie will pi event the bie iking out of the Yellows, when constitntion.dly httnil in the tice, we "\\ill not yet undertake to say. In slight cases of the disease we believe that it may. Of one tiling, however, we aie certain : it has hitheito failed eutnely to leclaim tiees in which the malady had oncp broken out. Neither do we know of any well attested case of its cine, after this stage, by any means wha'cver. Such cases have indeed been lepoitcd to us, and published in journals, but, when investigated, they have pi overt to be trees sufTenng by the effect of the boiei only. A planter of peach-tiees must, even with care, expect to see a few cases of Yellows occasionally appear. The malady is too w idely extended to be immediately vanquished. Occasionally ticcs having the constitutional taint will show themselves w hoi c Jeast suspected ; but when the peach is once propeily cultivated these will e\ cry day become- more rare, until the original health and longevity of this fruit-tree is again established.

Tin: Fiench issue of "John Bull and His Island" is leported to be in its twenty eighth edition. A i,wv fellow once declared in public company that he couldn't find bread for Ins family. " Noi I," icplied au inrtustiiou^ mechanic : " I am obliged to work far it. Fkh.ii> Ft'N\—" T forgot all about llio^e water pipes last night, and this moi ning tliey have to be thawed," icmaiked Mis B. the other morning, "You should have thawed of that oailier, my dear, ' was the cold reply of her husband. " Iwjsit I weie a baby," mm mured a bashful hachcloi, who was making his fiist call on a sweet young lady. " How i ldiculons !"' she e\clanned, " Why do you wish so 9' " Because a lady can never look at a baby without kissing it." The eight companies- whose reservoirs and mains convey the liquid without w Inch London would die of thiist, have spent altogether a sum of £12,000,000 in an anting for the conveyance of water from the seurces of supply to the houses of their customers. Ftom these customer they levied in 1879 a gross income of close upon £1,500,000. Expenses and inteieston borrowed money swallowed up only one half of this sum, leaving n netpiofit of more than £700,000 available for dividend.

Tin*, UjJNjnrrous Milkniw—A few yeais ago, Punch, alluding to tho cosmopolitan nature of the sons of the Emerald Isle, stated that an Irishman would be found sitting on the top of the South Pole enjoying himself in smoking out of his f.ivouutc dhud'-en. The able coi respondent of the London Standard with Biker Pasha's army at Soukim. December 20th, vvntes thus :—" In Afghanistan, the Indian sowars could haidly contain their delight a.s our troops entered the town. The advent at Suakim of the numerous Butish men-of-war is pioducing on those here a similar effect. Amongst the crow d were not many soldieis, for these were all on parade, awaiting tiic inspection of Sartorious Pasha. Meeting, however,, a somewhat fine looking Tuikish mounted officer, clad in fez , Stambonli tunic, and boots I instructed my interpreter to ask him in Aiadic some directions as to our road. The answer was given by a gracious smile in good Tipperaiy English, and we at once undeistood that we had met one of the English non-commissioned office!s whom Baker Pasha has enrolled in tho gendaimerie, in Oiicutal guise. This gallant Tippeiary Irishman should not allow us to part without having a glass of leal old Dublin -\\hisky, to clunk the toa&t of ' God save Ireland.' "

AGRICULTURE IN THE ARGENTINE REPUBLIC.—The United States Consul at Buenos Ayres believes that the Argentine Republic is to be one of the greatest grain pioducing countries in the world. He estimates the wheat crop of this year at 19,500,000 bushels, more than half of which will be surplus for export, and adds that the surplus corn (maize) will amount to 5,000,000 bushels Linseed has also been giown to a very large extent this year. The number of acres devoted to agriculture has more than doubled in the last six years, yet there are less than 2,000,000 acres under cultivation in the foui teen provinces, outof 1,800,000,000 the greater partof the remainder being used for grazing cattle or sheep. Experimentsproves that the pampas are remarkably fertile under cultivation and admirably fitted for cereal crops. Exploration in Patagonia has levealed rich meadows and valleys capable of sustaining millions of cattle and sheep. The fertility of these lands will make them hereafter in the consul's opinion, the granary and garden of the Republic. Several settlements have recently been made on the Atlantic coast of the provinces, and the inhabitants aie raising wheat. The number of immigrants increases annually, and the wealth of I lie country's soil aud mineral deposits will certainly be developed in the course of time. It may be, therefore, that Consul Bakev is justified in making the prediction that at some time, although not in the near future, the Republic will contend with the United States for a division of the export trade in grain.

* The following remarks, directly in point, are from Loudon's last work : " The effect of shortening the shoots of the peach is not merely to throw more sap into the fruit, but to add vigour to the tree generally by increasing the power ot the roots relatively to the branches. The peach being a short-lived tree, it has been justly remarked by Mr Thompson, were it allowed to expend all its accumulated sap every year, it would noon exhaust itself and die of old a^e,"—-Suburban Horticulturist, .