WARSAW HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 359 



THE ITOHTICULTURAL OUTLOOK, 



Althou<yh somewhat unsatisfactory, promises better than we ex- 

 ])ecte(l some months ago. True, we sliall have no ])eaches, and very 

 few cherries; but we expect a fair crop of Snyder l)hickl)errie8 and 

 Turner raspberries, and a partial crop of Bhick Caps and Concord 

 grapes. Strawberries were not in good condition hist fall, and we 

 cannot therefore expect a good croji. 



But the great fruit crop of this section of country is the ajjple, 

 and its failure means the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars. 

 The great interest of the fruit-growers, therefore, centers here. A 

 careful examination of several orchards shows that fruit buds of. the 

 principal standard varieties, except Winesap, although not very nu- 

 merous, are healthy and })lump in appearance and rapidly swelling, 

 some of the early varieties being nearly open. The season is now so 

 far advanced that there is little danger of injury by frost. We may, 

 therefore, expect a fair crop of many varieties, unless the low vitality 

 of the trees causes the young fruit to drop. From some sections we 

 hear of great loss by killing and injury of apple trees by the terrible 

 cold of the past winter. 



Seeing a notice of the gi-eat loss suffered by the Hon. .J. M. 

 Dixon, of Oskaloosa, Iowa, one of the largest orchardists in the north- 

 west, I addressed him a note incpiiring as to the extent of the injury 

 in Central Iowa, to which he replied as follows: 



" I regret to say that our orchards are badly injured, but it is 

 impossible at this time to determine just what per cent, of trees are 

 absolutely killed. On my first discovery of the injury, about three 

 weeks ago, iny conclusions were that nine-tenths of my orchard was 

 entirely killed, leaving about fifty trees, beside Willow Twigs, which 

 were slighily injured. The kinds not injured are Red Astrachan, 

 Duchess, Fameuse, Westfield. and Lowell. The varieties seriously 

 injured are Ben Davis, Janet, Jonathan, Winesap. Dominie, Roman 

 Stem, Pearmain, etc. A small per cent, of the Ben Davis show signs 

 of recuperating. It may be that nature will restore a part of these 

 dead-looking trees, luit T am unable at this time to see much ground 

 for lio})e. The main injury seems to be in the bodies of the trees. 

 In some cases the bark is burst, but generally the inner bark and the 

 outer wood are l)rowned to about the color of black walnut, and ap- 

 pears to be wholly dead. As a general rule the limbs and twigs are 

 but slightly injured. The cause of the injury was not. [ think, so 

 much from the intense cold of the winter as .the condition of the 

 trees when winter set in. , We had a very dry July, August and Sep- 

 tember, and by the last of September the leaves were nearly all off. 

 Octol)er set in dry and warm, and our fruit trees were as full of sap 

 when the cold weather set in as they usually are by the fifteenth of 

 April. The intense cold of course ruptured the sap pores, causing 



