124: Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



jured o: killed, many escaped, and some, even, in spite of all the 

 unfavorable conditions, had borne a moderate crop of fruit. 



The winter had been especially severe on vines and small fruits. 

 In his own garden the strawberry vines were badly killed. Those 

 on the highest ground and the tops of the ridges suffered the 

 most. Patches near the furrows, or where the surface was slightly 

 depressed, were not injured as much, and partially recovered and 

 bore a fair crop of fruit. 



Mr. Plumb said that the loss in the orchard and nursery was 

 great, but not as great as we had reason to expect from the ex- 

 haustion of the trees by an excessive crop of fruit, followed by 

 an early and hard winter. Severe cold weather came on be- 

 fore the trees had completed the season's growth, and hence the 

 wood growth was not mature. In addition to this, the ground 

 was quite dry when the cold weather came, and continued dry all 

 winter, for after the first cold snap in November, there was no 

 thaw out, or let up of extreme cold, until the snow left in the 

 spring. Trees standing on high ground and in grass land suffered 

 the least. He regarded the injury done to the strawberry beds, 

 as the result of lack of moisture in the soil and the consequent 

 freezing dry of the roots. Where there is this lack of moisture 

 in the soil and the winter is severe, no reasonable amount of cov- 

 ering will protect the plants from injury. A mulch applied 

 earlier in the season that will store and retain moisture in the soil 

 would be very beneficial, but mulch applied after the ground 

 freezes up will not prevent the roots freezing dry, where there is 

 but little moisture. 



Mr. Kellogg stated that the injury done would have been un- 

 doubtedly much greater had it not been for the heavy fall of snow 

 which lay on the ground the last half of the winter. The 

 •weather was very cold and the ground froze nearly three feet deep 

 before the snow fell. The winter of 1874-75 is known as the 

 "cold winter." February, 1875, was the coldest month we have 

 had for twenty-five years. During that month the mercury stood 

 below zero for twenty days, the aggregate number of degrees 

 below was three hundred and twenty-four. In January, 1881, 

 the mercury stood below zero twenty-two days, with an ag- 



