ISTew Yoek Agricultural Expeeime^s't Station. 265 



Figure B on Plate VIII shows that the tree looked normal in every- 

 way. In fact it was impossible to tell any difference either in the 

 growth, fruitfulness or color, between this and other trees of the 

 same variety in the orchard. 



Across a little ravine on the east of this orchard is another small 

 apple orchard which had been set 7 years and cultivated regularly. 

 About 6 out of each hundred trees were affected by crown-rot, as 

 shown in figure B on Plate XVIII. Three of the trees died in 1911 

 and several had died the year before. The initial injury occurred 

 during the winter of 1908-09, as indicated by cross-sections through 

 the affected trees. 



Sometimes radial clefts occur in the bark of apple and other trees 

 when in reality it is loosened but little, or not at all. In the case 

 shown in figure B on Plate XXIII a cleft occurred during the winter 

 of 1910-11 but no loosening of the bark had taken place. In such 

 instances it appears as though the normal maximum bark tension 

 occurring just before normal bark roughening or scaling begins is 

 sufficiently increased by low temperature to result in abnormal 

 ruptures. 



The Weedsport orchards. — A short distance northwest of Weedsport 

 is a 7-acre apple orchard 5.5 acres of which had been set to Baldwin 

 trees in spring of 1909, with Ben Davis as fillers; i. e., with trees of 

 Baldwin and Ben Davis alternating in each row. The other 1.5 

 acres was set at the same time to a mixture of Northern Spy, Wealthy, 

 and other varieties. The orchard is on high land draining toward 

 the southwest, but has a rather dense low growth of forest on 

 the west which also has a scattering extension on the north around 

 the west end of the orchard, as shown in figures A and B on Plate 

 XIII. The south side, however, is wholly open and fully exposed 

 to the south and southwest winds. 



The whole orchard was thoroughly fertilized and cultivated without 

 being cropped. The trees were banked with soil in the fall of 1910, 

 which was removed in spring of 1911. The Baldwin trees had been 

 headed high while the Ben Davis trees were pruned but little. 



The first visit was made to the place May 18, 1911, when it was 

 found that about 85 per ct, of the Baldwin trees had girdles of dead 

 or dying bark about their trunks, usually beginning 6 to 10 cm. 

 above the ground and extending upward 10 to 18 cm. Apparently, 

 then, the injury occurred about the upper surface of the soil mounds 

 as it did in the orchard near Geneva, discussed above. The clefts 

 in the bark were usually on the southwest or south sides, but on 

 account of the fact that the bark of many of the injured girdles had 

 already died and become dry and wind-checked in various places, it 

 was impossible always to distinguish between primary and secondary 

 cracks. Unfortunately none of the dozen films exposed during this 

 visit proved good enough for reproduction, but the injured places 



