58 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



abnormal climatic condition. The record of the weather bureau at Lansing, 

 for that month tells the whole story. It shows that on the 11th the tem- 

 perature rose to 63 at Williamston near that city; that the mean daily 

 temperature was above the normal for 26 days in the month; that 

 the ground had not been frozen solid, and that plowing was in progress in 

 Wayne county at the close of the month. A fruitgrower near Paw Paw, 

 one of our close observers, fearing the effect of of this high temperature 

 "upon his peach crop, broke off a small branch and placed it in tepid water 

 in his room. It there burst into bloom in a few days, showing that the 

 sap had begun the processof transformation and that considerable progress 

 had been made toward developing the bloom. Had this kind of weather 

 occurred in April instead of January, that fatal fungoid epidemic which 

 scientific investigators found so widespread in the summer following, 

 would never have appeared; but another extreme followed early in March. 

 The record kept by A. H. Smith of Paw Paw, shows the following range 

 of a self -registering thermometer: March 2, two degrees; 4, four degrees: 

 5, five degrees below; 6, eleven degrees below; 7. two below; 8, two degrees; 

 April 8, 72 degrees; 9. 25 degrees. Remember, now, that the cell work of 

 starch and gums and other essential pabulum laid up in the wood structure 

 for the development of the next season's leafage and fruit, had been broken 

 down by the untimely heat, was dissolved by the ascending sap and set 

 flowing into the circulation of all plants alike. Is it at all strange that just 

 such an effect was produced as Professor Bailey describes, and as you all 

 remember to have seen? Had the buds remained in their normal dormant 

 state, the eleven degrees below zero would not have been extreme enough 

 to have killed even the peaches, but here was an unusual condition: sap in 

 flow and growth begun when suddenly arrested by zero weather for six 

 days. It is almost a wonder that the trees themselves did not die. Indeed, 

 so nearly dead were they last season that no adequate provision could be 

 made for the crop which many thought would certainly \come this year 

 because of the failure last. In the state crop report for May last, the cor- 

 respondents were asked regarding the prospects for fruit. I then stated 

 my belief that apples would again prove a failure, giving substantially the 

 same reasons as here expressed for my opinion. 



There is one other cause of barrenness in apple trees which I shall not 

 take time to discuss. I allude to the lack of initiation in the soiL 

 Orchards are quite frequently cropped as long as anything will grow 

 around the trees, and then cursed for their inability to respond in abun- 

 dant yields of fruit. A tree under such circumstances is a stubborn thing. 

 When it strikes this barren attitude it will remain in that surly mood 

 until the conditions change, or the owner sells or is sold out. Then it 

 may smile again in plenteous bounty after its wants are met, and be a 

 generous aid to increase the income of the new owner. 



A STUBBORN NEW YORK ORCHARD. 



Mr. L. B. Rice of Port Huron: I have in Wayne county, New York, an 

 orchard of 225 trees set on the south slope of a hill; most are Baldwins 

 but some are Greenings, but in 24 years I have not gathered 24 cents' 

 worth of fruit per tree from it, save one year when I got a fair crop of 

 Greenings. I have cultivated it and let it alone; seeded it and plowed it 

 up: cut the grass and let it grow. The orchard is on good soil — the same 



