282 Repokt of the Botanical Department of the 



and the further extension of the histological series into the early- 

 summer may be finished at odd times so that its publication should 

 not be long delayed. 



Late fall and early winter were rather rough and cold around 

 Madison. The average temperature for both October and November 

 was below the normal. But December was an uncommonly mild 

 month with the temperature ranging considerably above the normal, 

 except during the last few days when it sank to — 22.2° C. January 

 was colder than any previous January on the records of the United 

 States Weather Bureau for that region; the temperature was over 

 8° C. below the normal. The highest temperature was — 0.55° C. 

 and the lowest — 31.6° C. The temperature in February was also 

 2.7° C. below the normal. The highest temperature during the 

 month was — 7.7° C. and the lowest — 27.3° C^ The March record 

 was 3.8° C. below normal, with a minimum of less than — 20° C. 

 Many periods of high winds occurred; one of the strongest lasted 

 most of the day on December 10 with a maximum during the middle 

 of the afternoon of 56 miles per hour, and exerting a force of nearly 

 17 pounds per square foot. 



In western New York the weather was very similar to that described 

 for the Madison region except that it was not quite so cold. 



At Madison three small apple orchards on the university farm 

 were easily accessible for observation and study. One had been 

 set about two and another about six years; while the third orchard 

 consisted chiefly of trees that had been set some 9 to 14 years. In 

 the oldest orchard many trees of undesirable varieties were kindly 

 put at the writer's disposal by J. G. Moore, Professor of Horticulture 

 in the University. The trees in these orchards were examined several 

 times during the winter in order to determine if possible the time 

 of injury. 



Only three cases of crown-rot were found, and those were on trees 

 in the oldest orchard. The initial bark injury seemed to have 

 occurred during the winter of 1909-10, as judged by the presence of 

 callus of two years' growth around the wounds. In no instance, 

 however, did the injury extend more than half way around the base 

 of the trunk. 



Effect of changes in temperature on the circumference of tree trunks. — 

 In order to secure some first-hand data on the effect of low tempera- 

 ture on the circumference of tree trunks a small number of apple 

 trees in the oldest orchards were measured at different times. The 

 regions around which the measurements were taken were marked 

 at two points on each tree in order that the different measurements 

 would be more comparable. They were made with a steel tape- 

 measure which when used during low temperature naturally some- 

 what minimized the results of the contraction of the tree trunks. 



