Peach Yellows as Related to a Peach Breeding Program

Abstract

Peach yellows, a virus disease of peaches, according to Cochran and Reevest, was recognized soon after peach culture was started in Massachusetts. Peach yellows is generally recorded as the first known peach virus disease, and it became prevalent in the Philadelphia area as early as 1750. Its early occurrence on peaches leads to the supposition that the casual virus was present in hosts native to the northeastern United States, and that it spread from these hosts to the peach. As peach culture spread, peach yellows spread along with it until it reached the limits of the range of the insect vector. A number of severe epidemics of the disease occurred, and wiped out peach orchards in different sections of the country, particularly in the northeastern United States and in the Great Lakes States.