Page 18 



BETTER FRUIT 



December, 1921 



Winter Injury 



{Continued from fage 6) 

 frees would not be crippled as they are now 

 bound to be when heart-rot fungi enter 

 the unprotected wood. Frozen wood is 

 very susceptible to attack by these wood rot- 

 ting organisms. Living bark is the best pro- 

 tection against such invasion, but failing 

 that, exposed wood should be coated with a 

 good protective tree paint, such as that 

 made by warming together a mixture of 

 I /3 creosote and 2/3 coal tar, or a good 

 Bordeaux paste may be used. Both should 

 be frequently renewed until the wound is 

 completely healed over. 



Apples, 30-year-old Baldwins, Spitzen- 

 bergs, Romes, Ganos, Astrachans, and Yel- 

 low Transparents — The Baldwin, Spitz, 

 and in some case the Romes also were 

 girdled above the snow line when examined 

 in February, the bark being discolored all 

 the way through and the sapwood likewise 

 browned. In such cases the trees were 

 recognized as hopeless and by July nothing 

 remained of them but a collection of dead 

 trees. Except for a few green shoots that 

 had "suckered" from below the snow line 

 they presented the same appearance as in 

 February. An occasional tree, more vigor- 

 ous than its neighbors, or those that had 

 been fertilized, appeared to be in better 

 shape and with careful nursing might pull 

 through, but these trees were few. It was 

 a striking demonstration of hardiness, how- 

 ever, to see Astrach.ms, Yellow Transpar- 

 ents, and Ganos in full leaf and bearing 

 a good crop, standing out green and vigor- 

 ous in the midst of the dead trees, sole 

 survivors of a once beautiful orchard. 



Filberts, 9-year-old Barcelona and Du- 

 Chilly — The catkins were killed above the 

 snow line, but were not injured below. 

 Pistillate flowers were uninjured. Occa- 

 sional cambium injury was observed on the 

 south side and where the trees had been 

 heavily forced this was more severe. The 

 greatest damage, however, resulted from 

 the loss of the next year's crop. 



Walnuts, 9-year-old seedling Franquettes 

 and Mayettes — The one-year-old wood was 

 dead also the buds and catkins when ex- 

 amined in February. The bodies were in- 

 jured through the bark, cambium and sap- 

 wood, especially on the south side, but on 

 the north there was, in many cases, a strip 

 of good cambium that offered some hope of 

 saving the trees, although as cripples. In 

 July we found occasional shoots from ad- 

 ventious buds below the one-year-old Avood 

 and usually many from below the snow line. 



TT MIGHT be of interest to go a little 

 -■- farther with these special reports on 

 conditions in nut orchards. For instance, 

 the influence of elevation and good air 

 drainage was shown in the freedom from 

 injury of the extensive plantation known 

 as the Eola Tracts near Amity, Ore. One 

 or two trees only on the entire planting 

 of over 1300 acres, showed any injury at 

 all, very slight discoloration in the outer 



bark. These trees were in a little pocket 

 shut off by some woods. The planting is 

 located at an elevation of 700-800 feet 

 above rhe main valley floor, where severe 

 loss occurred. The land is very rolling and 

 this provides good air and soil drainage. 

 Due to its elevation it escaped the severe 

 freezing temperature since the minimum 

 reached only six degrees above zero. Again, 

 in the Liberty District, south of Salem, 

 there is a walnut orchard extending from 

 a small flat on poorly drained land over 

 a hill. The trees on the flat were observed 

 to be badly damaged in February and I 

 suspect some of them have since died, but 

 on top of the hill no damage could he 

 found. These observations doubtless could 

 be multiplied many times if we could col- 

 lect the experlnces of all the growers. 

 What is the lesson — Choose a safe loca- 

 tion for your plantation, do not disregard 

 such fundamental consideration when es- 

 tablishing a business that should last a life- 

 time or more, but which can be wiped out 

 in a single night. A perfect climate exists 

 only in the prospectus of the real estate 

 man; don't gamble with the weather. 



Besides choosing a good location, what 

 more can we do for protection? We can 

 influence the degree of dormancy with 

 which our trees enter winter by the manner 

 of cultivation and the system of cover crop- 

 ping employed. Take as an instance in 

 point the orchards of Charles Trunk, at 

 Dundee. His plantation is on deep clay 

 loam soil, very retentative of moisture and 

 it extends from low bottome land over 

 the lower slopes of the hills. He recog- 

 nizes that the different sections re- 

 quire different treatment in the wav of 

 cultivation, and that he succeeds in induc- 

 ing proper dormancy was indicated by the 

 condition of his trees and their compara- 

 tively light damage when I visited the 

 orchards in February. He has good drain- 

 age conditions except on the low bottom 

 land, but here he discontinues cultivation 

 in June to allow the trees to harden up for 

 winter. On higher land he cultivates until 

 August, depending upon the soil. He 

 grows a cover crop of clover between the 

 trees and this also aids in better ripening 

 of the wood as well as furnishing fertilit}-. 

 Such conditions call for good judgment in 

 balancing moisture conservation for crop 

 production and timelv checking of growth 

 in preparation for winter. The wood of 

 his trees appeared uninjured in February, 

 but occasional bark injury was noted as well 

 as killing of buds and catkins, the critical 

 temperature for which was passed with 

 cold registered at ten degrees below at his 

 place. 



The question is frequently asked as to 

 the possibility of reducing loss from winter 

 killing by topworking tender sorts to 

 hardier varieties. For obvious reasons 

 complete success by this plan can only come 

 if the operation is carried out below the 

 usual snow line. 



When injury has already occurred above 

 the snow! me and the trees a-re' likely to die 



as a result, which was the case in so many 

 instances two years ago, resort may be had 

 to stump grafting, as has been successfully 

 demonstrated bv W. W. Reburn in his ten- 

 year-old walnut orchard at McMlnnville, 

 and by Mr. Cox, also at McMinnville, in 

 the case of his old apple orchard. If, how- 

 ever, you are going to stump-graft, the 

 quicker vou cut away the dead top the 

 better chance ^'ou will have for success of 

 the operation. . Mr. Cox's experience will 

 bear out this statement, for where he de- 

 layed his grafting operations until the trees 

 came into leaf he had rather a poor success 

 in getting his cions to take, while in cases 

 where the work was done early he had com- 

 plete success. 



