22 Wisconsin State Horticultukal Society. 



full, bat then dry and hot weather came on, checked the growth 

 and seriously injured the plants; all kinds were affected alike. It 

 was his opinion that the causes of the injury were lack of moist- 

 ure in the soil in the fall'and winter, followed by dry weather 

 and excessive heat in the spring. 



President Smith said that his beds had received the usual care, 

 ard never looked more promising ; the mulch was marsh hay, 

 but it was put on rather late, after the ground was frozen up ; this, 

 however, could not have been the cause of the injury, for his sons 

 covered their beds much earlier, yet their vines were injured 

 much more than his. He noticed the plants in January, before 

 the snow came, and found some of the leaves were dead ; when 

 the snow came he felt that they would be all safe, but on uncov- 

 ering them in the spring and finding every leaf dead — Crescents 

 and all — he was completely discouraged. His beds were in 

 ridges about two rods wide, considerably the highest in the center, 

 and this is where thie plants were killed much the worst, whether 

 because the soil was dryer, or because the plants were more ex- 

 posed, he did not know. The vigor of the Crescent was very 

 clearly shown, lor while the tops were killed the same as the other 

 kinds, not a plant was killed ; each root sent up new leaves and 

 stems, and the bed was now a mass of foliage. 



Mr. Stickney remarked that there were two facts mentioned by 

 President Smith which went to prove that lack of moisture was 

 the cause of the injury; one was that the plants on the top of the 

 ridges, where the soil was the driest, were injured the most; the 

 other, that the injury was much greater on his son's land, which 

 is still dryer than Mr. Smith's. His own plants had not been 

 killed, but were hurt, and caused the crop to be small in quantity 

 and imperfect in quality. Young beds were injured the most. 

 He had no doubt but that the loss came from the roots freezing 

 dry early in the fall, and that it would have been much worse, if 

 not complete destruction, had it not been for the covering of snow 

 the latter part of the winter, and the gradual manner in which it 

 melted in the spring. These conditions of soil are alike unfav- 

 orable to fruit trees and vines. 



Mr. Plumb thought if the injury was done early in the fall or 



