The communication of Mr. Reid in your March number, reviewing the proceedings of the Western New York Fruit Growers' Society at its late annual meeting in Rochester, has directed my attention to the report of The Country Gentleman upon which Mr. Reid's strictures were based. The remarks on the subject of the yellows, attributed to me in that report, are as follows:

"P. Barry's opinion is that the yellows is not contagious; has had trees from a region badly affected, which, planted on good ground, became healthy - would, however, advise none to plant them. The cure of the yellows seemed to be a good fertile soil, and the cause of it a poor worn-out soil. He thinks the young-peach trees do not have the yellows in New Jersey until they are 3 or 4 years old".

The reports of the Country Gentleman are usually remarkable for their accuracy, but I am constrained to say that this one is incorrect in several particulars. It is true the fault may in part have been mine in not expressing myself clearly; but, at all events, I shall now state what I at least intended to say.

1st. I did not intend to say that " I had trees from a region badly affected, which, planted on good ground, became healthy".

I stated that I had frequently obtained trees from parts of the country where the yellows were said to exist, and that these trees had never shown any signs of the disease in our grounds. The question was asked me then if I would recommend the purchase of trees from nurseries when this disease was prevalent, and I said I would not.

* The arithmetic in the first No. was not correct.

2d. I did not intend to say that a good fertile soil, or good culture, or both, or any thing else, would cure the yellows; for I think that when a tree is once affected with that malady it can not be cured; but I recommended them as preventives. My opinion as to the cause of the yellows is stated in the following report from the Rural New Yorker, and I also stated the same views before the Progressive Gardener's Society last fall in Philadelphia.

"Mr. Barry thought the yellows not contagious. Some have supposed that the disease is communicated by the pollen of the flower. Mr. B. thought the cause to be a poor, impoverished soil, and general bad management for a series of years, which develops the disease and makes it constitutional".

Now I am not dogmatic on this point. My opinion was asked, and I gave it, as I usually do, for what it is worth. I can assure Mr. Re id, however, of this, that I had no desire to injure his business, or that of any other nurseryman in New Jersey.

If I wanted peach or any other trees that Mr. Reid had, I would have no hesitation in buying from him, and I might say the same of others in New Jersey. I think 1 may also take the liberty of saying for the Fruit Growers' Society Of Western New York, that it never has, in its discussions, shown the slightest disposition to favor the nurserymen of one portion of the country at the expense of the other. Their published reports will bear me out in this. The question of "yellows," like other diseases, as this has been supposed to be for half a century or more, was considered a legitimate subject for discussion and inquiry in all its bearings.

Mr. Reid has been for once in his life too sensitive, and I regret it, because he is one of those nurserymen whose reputation and standing should place him far above those petty jealousies which, of late years, have been too frequently manifested. Our great country, divided as it is even, affords scope enough for us all. Let us live together and work together in harmony, and when we differ in opinion, as we may and must, let us do it in a manly and friendly way. Leave the wrangling to the politicians.

[We respond heartily to Mr. Barry's closing sentiment; a sentiment which we have time and again endeavored to impress upon our readers. "Let us live together and work together in harmony." In nine cases out often, a little friendly explanation, received in a kindred spirit, will set in a proper light what would otherwise seem dark and obscure. Mr. Barry is one of the last men to leave a friend to the incertitudes of a false impression, and Mr. Reid is one of the last not to accept an explanation. Mr. Barry's name has been so long absent from pages over which he once so fitly presided, that we welcome it back again with peculiar pleasure. The spell that held his tongue in silence having been broken, we hope he will speak again, and often. - Ed].

Yellows In Peach-Trees #1

I notice a New Jersey fruit grower is very sure the yellows is caused by poor soil, and that good soil and good culture will prevent it. This doctrine will certainly do no harm, but the facts do not seem to support it. There are instances where only one limb has shown the symptoms the first year, the rest of the tree producing fruit perfectly free from disease. It would be difficult to explain how poor soil could affect a small portion of the tree only. All speculations in regard to the causes of the maladies to which fruit trees are subject, seem to be, thus far, fruitless. Perhaps it would be just as well to conclude that they are the result of the little mistake of the wife of the superintendent of the first fruit garden, and let the matter drop.

St. Joseph, Mich, J. A. D.