1-ii liLFOKT OF THE Jjiil^AKTMKJST OF BoTAJSIY OK 1 UK 



details of tlie case it became plain that the trouble was due to 

 the trees having been thawed out too suddenly. 



The trees were of many different varieties, and yet all were 

 equally affected. Had it been due to lire blight or any other 

 parasitic diseases, some varieties would have been injured more 

 than others and some individuals more than others. On the 

 disease hypothesis it is also impossible to account for the uni- 

 formity of height at which the trees were affected. When the 

 trees were placed in the cellar in the autumn they were all right,, 

 and an examination of some trees in the same blocks which had 

 remained over winter in the field showed that none of them had 

 blackened branches. Also, some of the same lot of trees which 

 had been stored in another cellar were free from the trouble. 



For many years it has been the practice of the owner of the 

 trees to keep the temperature of the cellar as nearly as possible 

 at 32° F., and whenever the temperature tends to fall below 

 32° an open wood fire is built on the floor of the cellar. In the 

 present case, however, no fire was built during the winter. 

 Hence, early in the winter the sand about the roots of the trees 

 froze to a depth of i>erhaps three inches and remained frozen 

 until February. On February 25, 1200 of the trees were dug 

 out of 'the frozen sand and packed for shipment. No complaint 

 was received concerning the condition of these trees, so it may 

 be assumed that they were not affected with the branch black- 

 ening either before or after removal from the cellar. At this 

 time all trees in the cellar appeared to be all right. 



So much difficulty was experienced in removing the trees 

 from the frozen sand that it was decided to build a little fire 

 in the cellar and thaw the sand. The fire was built February 27 

 in one corner of the cellar where the 1200 trees had been removed 

 two davs earlier. A few davs later the trees were observed to be 

 in the unhealthy condition above described. Our own observa- 

 tions were made March 15. The fire had not been suspected as 

 being the cause of the trouble because it had long been the cus- 

 tom to build fires in cold weather. The man who built the fire 

 admitted that it had been made a little larger than usual in order 



