Page 12 



BETTER FRUIT 



April 



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Send for our Spraying Literature 



The Sherwin-Williams Co, 



Insecticide and Fungicide Makers 

 707 Canal Road, Cleveland, O. 



Winter Kill in Mild Climates 



By Professor C. I. Lewis, Oregon Agricultural College, Corvallis, Oregon 



CLIMATIC conditions in Oregon, and 

 especially in that portion of the 

 state -west of the Cascade Range, have 

 for the past two years been hard on 

 fruit trees. It has been, so to speak, 

 unusual weather, although I hesitate 

 to use that term, because I am begin- 

 ning to conclude after eleven years' 

 residence in the state that the only 

 weather we have is unusual. But to 

 trace back our steps for a moment, we 

 will remember that the summer of 1915 

 was extremely dry. We finished the 

 year with 10 to 20 inches below normal 

 rainfall. Many trees became too dry 

 and suffered, others were overstimu- 

 laled with irrigation or tillage, because 

 of the very dry condition, which in- 

 duced some men to practice methods 

 which even under dry conditions 

 tended to overstimulate. This dry sum- 

 mer was followed by a winter of a 

 very freaky nature. We find, for ex- 

 ample, that during the entire winter in 

 many sections the ground was un- 

 frozen. It was during a portion of the 

 time saturated with moisture and cov- 

 ered with snow from 1 to .t feet in 

 depth. At Corvallis, for example, we 

 find that on .lanuary 19 the temperature 

 dropped to 8 degrees, and there was 

 hardly a day in the month but what 

 had killing temperatures. By the middle 

 of February there was an abrupt 

 change in the weather. The tempera- 

 ture rose in the day from about GO to 

 70 degrees and lowered at night to the 

 vicinity of 30 degrees, which would 

 mean that out in the open orchards 

 freezing temperatures were ex|)eri- 

 enced. In fact there were nine killing 

 frosts during the month. During the 

 latter part of the month the sap was 



beginning to rise in many of the trees. 

 The abrupt change in temperature, 

 amounting to 30 degrees in three hours, 

 froze the sap. The next day the tem- 

 perature again rising to about CO de- 

 grees, caused a very rapid thawing. 

 This alternate rapid thawing and freez- 

 ing proved disastrous to many trees. 

 Had the ground been frozen, the roots 

 probably would have remained in- 

 active, but I think with no frost in the 

 ground the sap was encouraged to rise. 

 The peculiar weather was followed by 

 one of the heaviest frosts in history 

 in the state during the first two weeks 

 in May. The past summer of 1916 

 proved unusually wet and the fall ex- 

 tremely dry. This made ideal condi- 

 tions for early killing frosts, and the 

 first week of October found the tem- 

 perature as lov.' as 20 to 22 degrees. 

 The dry fall seemingly had an influ- 

 ence in hardening the young fruit trees, 

 but was not sufficient to check English 

 walnuts and the result was extreme 

 damage, especially on the low lands, 

 to English walnuts. We find, however, 

 just a reversal of conditions compared 

 with February. The sap starts to flow 

 late in the walnuts and the February 

 weather did not affect them. On the 

 other hand, with some fruits such as 

 apples and pears, the sap starts to flow 

 early, and tlie weather did afl'ect them. 

 In the fall most fruit trees mature 

 easily, but the walnut matures ex- 

 tremely slow. Thus the fruit trees 

 had little or no damage and the wal- 

 nuts, because of active sap conditions, 

 were severely damaged. 



We use the term "winter killing" in a 

 rather broad sense. Strictly speaking 

 it is not real winter damage as w-e 



would expect lower minimum tempera- 

 tures to really give true winter damage. 

 It is more a condition which is identical 

 with sour sap. One of the causes is a 

 fluctuating temperature, the damage 

 being aggravated by unusual environ- 

 ment such as extreme drouth, poor 

 soil drainage or poor air drainage. The 

 evidences of winter killing were vari- 

 able. With apples there was a dis- 

 coloration of the bark above the snow 

 line and rapid splitting and loosening 

 of the bark. With pears it was some- 

 what the, same as with the apples, but 

 in most cases the top of the trees was 

 more severely damaged. On the older 

 trees the blossoms fell, or the fruit shed 

 i-ai)idly after setting. The leaves in 

 some trees did not develop to more 

 than one-tenth their normal size. Some 

 frees did not throw out any leaves. 

 Most of the trees had uninjured roots 

 and tended to throw up strong sprouts. 

 The walnuts which were injured in the 

 fall were simply frozen and meant in 

 some cases a damage back to three- 

 year-old wood. 



Last spring some varieties seemed to 

 be more alTected than others. For ex- 

 ample, trees that were worked over 

 to Northern Spy stock did not seem as 

 badly damaged as some varieties on 

 their own stock. In an orchard con- 

 sisting of Grimes On Northern Spy 

 stock, there was little or no damage. 

 Wageners were quite severely damaged. 

 Ortleys showed a little or no damage 

 and Yellow Newtowns a small amount 

 of damage, being perhaps more severe 

 in the top of the trees than on the 

 Conlinued on page 27 



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