STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIKTY. 1 5 



EVKRGREEN TREES IXJURED. 



Evergreens suffered most, and many of them came out in 

 tlie spring with their foliage seared and hrown and dead. It 

 was generally accepted that the steady cold weather of the 

 winter and the long period of freezing temperature had killed 

 the evergreen trees and shruhs. Evaporation in the winter has 

 been the cause of this. The fact is, it was not so much the 

 'freezing as the evaporation of the sap of the trees in the 

 winter. Trees must have an abundant supply of moisture in 

 the soil in the winter, for the process of evaporation of sap 

 goes on in the winter the same as in the smnmer, though not to 

 so great a degree. 



When trees are in full foliage in June, with a steadily rising 

 temperature, tons of water are daily taken up by them individ- 

 ually, and passed off into the atmosphere by evaporation and 

 transpiration through the foliage. 



In the winter when the foliage is absent the process of evap- 

 oration goes on steadily, and more rapidly when the tempera- 

 ture lowers and wind prevails. 



It is at such times that the peach buds suffer and are often 

 killed. The moisture is evaporated so rapidly that they are 

 left for a time in a (h-y condition and it is then that the germ 

 is killed. It is the dry condition that is produced, not the low 

 temperature that kills the bud. 



It is quite generally conceded that a temperature of sixteen 

 to eighteen degrees below zero will kill j^each buds, but such is 

 not a fact. 



PEACHES WITH LOW TEMPERATURE. 



One of the largest and most valuable peach crops I have 

 ever produced at "Orchard Farm" was that following a winter 

 when twenty-six degrees below zero was recorded. Very few 

 buds were killed and we had to thin off seventy per cent of the 

 fruit to save the trees from breaking. We have never spent an 

 hour of time propping trees, but rather we prune and thin 

 heavily. These trees h,ad produced a heavy crop the preceding 

 year, which was one of normal rainfall. They made good 

 grow^th of wood ; the fruit buds were strong and well devel- 

 oped ; the soil was well filled with water before winter, and 



