STATE MORTiriLTI RAL SOCIETY. O-T 



have seen tliem grow in New England, where it is cohkr ihan here ; but 

 I have never succeeded here, nor have I made ten per cent, on the cost of 

 their cuhivation. 



The President — The sweet cherry crop in New England has been 

 a failure. 



Mr. Wier (of Lacon) — I must agree with Mr. Starr that the sun on 

 our clear days in winter has a terrible and disastrous effect on many 

 kinds of vegetation ; my sweet cherries, in the winter of 1872-73, withstood 

 2<S° to 32° below zero, and were but very little injured, and many of 

 them bore fruit the summer jaf 1873, ^"<^ still gave fruit again in 1875, 

 after 26° below zero, and none of my trees were killed either winter. 

 But they all had their trunks sheltered from the sun on the south and west 

 sides, and I have never known a tree of this class that did not have its 

 trunk so sheltered to remain sound any length of time. I shelter the 

 trunks of mine by training them so as to have branches from the ground 

 up, cutting them back when young so as to have them very bushy near 

 the ground. If we can get the sweet cherry into the form which the 

 Scotch pine^takes when growing naturally, and on dry soil, we need not 

 fear its winter-killing. I am also well convinced that a bright winter's 

 sun, such as we nearly always have during our coldest weather, produces 

 effects that we have little dreamed of. On my rather closely planted 

 lawn there were about thirty dwarf pear trees, which were planted pro- 

 miscuously amongst other trees — deciduous and evergreen — and last 

 spring the roots of every one of these trees were found to be entirely 

 dead, e.xcept a few that were on the northeast side of other trees that 

 shaded them and the ground occupied by their roots from twelve to three 

 o'clock in the afternoon. All the trees that had even a very slight shade 

 at this time of day made a vigorous growth the past summer. It is a 

 fact well-known to all observing persons that so-called tender plants will 

 survive a very low temperature in certain situations ; and, when these 

 situations are studied, the reason, as a rule, is found to be protection 

 from the sun's rays in winter. How many more species of plants we find 

 flourishing on the north side of a hedge or fence than on the south ! — on 

 the steep north hill-side than the south I How the sun kills in winter is 

 not entirely settled in my mind ; but I think mostly in two ways: firstly, 

 by suddenly and repeatedly thawing out of the frozen tissues; and, 

 secondly, by a specific action of light, without reference to heat, on 

 dormant cellular organisms, especially in a dry state ; as it is a well- 

 known fact that our indigenous hardy plants are not injured by cold — no 



