270 Report of the Botanical Department of the 



bark on the northwest side beginning 5 to 8 cm. above the ground. 

 But the injuries usually covered less than half of the circumference. 

 In three of the cases unmistakable evidence of very narrow longi- 

 tudinal clefts were found in the injured bark, but in the two others 

 which were smaller, no indications of clefts could be seen. Figure A 

 of Plate XI shows one of them after it had been covered with wax. 



In view of the numerous other observations of this type of injury on 

 trees without the veneer it seems highly probable that the protectors 

 had no causal relation to the initial injury in this instance. 



Two other Branchport orchards. — About 1.5 miles southwest of 

 Branchport is a small 9-year-old apple orchard which consisted of 

 130 trees of Baldwin, Stark and Northern Spy. The land slopes 

 toward the east and the soil is clay. On the south side is a small 

 patch of forest while the west and northwest are open. 



The trees had been thoroughly fertilized and cultivated; they had 

 madearapid growth. In the spring of 1910 while looking for "grubs " 

 the grower found the bark of some trees injured at the ground, and 

 in 1911 he found many with decayed bark at the crowns. On May 

 11, 1911, 8 of the trees had been taken out and perhaps 15 more were 

 considerably crown-rotted. Their general appearance was like that 

 of figure B on Plate XVIII. 



Trees of all three varieties were affected but the injured ones were 

 principally of the Baldwin variety. 



Adjoining this orchard on the north was another with nearly twice 

 as many trees, and of the same varieties, but apparently without a 

 single tree injured. These trees were not as large as those in the 

 neighboring orchard although they had also been set 9 years. The 

 soil and slope of land were identical and the wind exposure seemed 

 even greater. The trees were also headed about alike in both 

 orchards. The only difference that could be found in the two was 

 that the crown-rotted one had been thoroughly fertilized and culti- 

 vated while the other remained in sod. 



A Middlesex orchard. — About a mile southwest of the village of 

 Middlesex is a Baldwin apple orchard of 150 trees on high land, 

 and with rather thin, gravelly soil. It is fully wind exposed in 

 all directions. 



The trees had been set three years and the orchard had been culti- 

 vated and cropped. The trees seemed rather small for that age. 

 On June 2, six of the trees were found to have injured bark on the 

 northwest side, near the ground. The most severely injured one 

 had a patch of partially loose, cleft bark on its northwest side which 

 extended more than half way round the trunk. Six injured trees 

 had been replaced by the grower, in May, because they seemed to 

 be dying. 



A Milton orchard. — During the second week in June in a clean 

 cultivated orchard about 2 miles west of Milton 3 Baldv/in trees were 

 found having small areas of loose, cleft bark at their crowns. About 



