TRANSACTIONS OF WARSAW HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 241 



Dr. HoUowbush — Any causes which arrest the growth tend to form 

 buds for a succeeding crop. This was particularly instanced with him in 

 scoring cherry trees. The growth was arrested, and the next year an 

 enormous yield of fruit resulted. 



W. N. Grover spoke of the presence of fungus on apple trees split 

 last winter ; feared injury from that cause. 



Dr. HoUowbush — The diseased parts of trees furnish the nidus, or 

 place where tlie floating spores of fungus find the required element tor 

 propagation. 



President Hammond said his trees shortened in were in fine condition. 



The Society concurred in President Hammond's views, as to shorten- 

 ing in the large limbs and branches of peach trees. 



The Committee appointed to visit Mr. Chittenden's orchard made 

 the following report : 



Ytjui commitlee, appointed U) visit the orchard of Mr. W. W. Chittenden, to inves- 

 tigate the cause of the death of so large a number of his apple trees, would respectfully 

 report that they have discharged that duty, and herewith present the result of their obser- 

 vations. 



Mr. C.'s orchard consists of seven or eight hundred trees of diflerent ages — the old- 

 est planted in 1841. In this old orchard, we found the usual number of dead and dying 

 trees, the result of the heat and drougth of the summer of '72, and the excessive cold of 

 the succeeding winter. 



The special object of our visit was a block of trees situated in the northwest corner 

 of his orchard, which were all dead, and had \itcn cleared from the ground. This bloci^ 

 consisted of one hundred and fifty or two hundred trees, with a fence running through it 

 from east to west, leaving two or three rows south of it. North of this lencc, and about 

 half way to the east line, the ground was cultivated until '69 or '70. .Since that time, it 

 has remained uncultivated, and but very little sod has been formed. The remaining 

 portion has not been cultivated tor fifteen or twenty years, and is well set in blue grass. 

 That portion that has Ijeen cultivated contains about two acres, upon which were planted 

 seventy-two trees — Milams, Rawles' Janets, Red Bellflowers, and Summer Queens. Of 

 these seventy-two trees, only about one-fourtii leaved out in the spring, and they suc- 

 cumbed to the heal and drought of summer, while those soutli and east of the plowed 

 line are as healthy and vigorous as trees of th.at age can be expected to be. 



The question that presents itself to your committee is, What was the cause of the 

 great mortality in this particular locality ? It cannot be attributed to tenderness of varie- 

 ties, for none of the reputed tender varieties were included in the list, and the same 

 varieties south of the fence are uninjured. It cannot be the exposure (which is north- 

 west) as the injured and the uninjured portion is the same. It cannot have been caused 

 by insect depredations, or the line would not have been so sharply drawn. It cannot 

 have been the cold winter, as it was just as cold south of the fence .-is north of it. Hav- 

 ing decided these points, we proceeded to examine the roots, when wc <liscovered thai 

 all the surface roots on the south side of the trees were dead, while those on the north 

 side were alive, and ai)parently in a healthy condition. 



The theor)' of your committee is, that during the severe drought of the summer 

 and fall of '72, the roots on the south side of the trees were killed by the intense heal 

 of the sun, the ground being unjirotected by sod, mulch, or shade of the trees, as 

 they had been pruned to an average height of nearly Jive feel. 



The loss of a portion of the roots does not necessarily cause the dealh of a tree : 

 and in this instance they would proljabiy have recovered if the succeeding winter had 

 l)een favorable. But as it proved to be one of unprecedented severity, the little remain- 

 ing vitality was destroyed. 



If your committee is correct in their conclusions, the preventive would seem to be 

 heads sufficiently bowed to >hade the ground, or if the trees have been so iiadly pruned 

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