^\TIAT IS WINTER-KILLING? 185 



of the Chicago fruit market you might say, sent a man up to my place 

 early In the season to make inquiry as to what the prospects were, and later 

 they sent men out to buy and pack apples. They got me away from my 

 duties and had me help them for five or six weeks, part of the time, as 

 much as I could spare, and we went around looking for apples over the 

 country, and we bought just the kind of apples we wanted, mostly Jona- 

 thans. We didn't want anything else, but sometimes we had to take a 

 few of other kinds in order to get the Jonathans. That season apples run 

 as high as 32.75 a barrel and we took everything that was sound on the 

 trees, the growers picked and piled the apples on the ground as we 

 packed them, ones, twos and threes. What was lower than that we threw 

 away. Number threes were shipped to Chicago and sold on the market for 

 $2 a barrel when they cost in the orchard $2.75. That looked to me like 

 throwing money away and some of the growers found what they were 

 doing with number threes and thought they would be the losers in the 

 long run, and after the holidays, a premium had been offered to the 

 packers out around the country, the man making the best pack would get 

 a premium, and there was quite a strife; and I wrote to Chicago after the 

 holidays were over and asked how our pack stood up with the others over 

 the country, and he said we were on top except for one eighty-acre orchard 

 in Missouri which had been thoroughly sprayed and the apples were in 

 fine condition. Our number twos were then selling at $6 a barrel and 

 number ones at $12. That explains why the threes should be sold, or 

 could be sold at $2 a barrel, as quick as they could be gotten out of sight. 

 President: In the high heading of trees our people in the western 

 part of the state cannot all agree. Mr. Murphy is at Glenwood and this 

 would refer to that section around there. In the western part of the state 

 we can't afford to do that. This is not said with any idea of criticism at 

 all, but simply to correct the reading of this when it comes out. 



WHAT IS WINTER-KILLING? 



BY FREDERICK E. CLEMENTS. 



It is commonly thought that winter injures trees and other woody 

 plants because of low temperatures. Bud scales are supposed to protect 

 the tender parts from cold, or against the sudden changes in freezing and 

 thawing. The bark is likewise thought to protect the young twigs and the 

 delicate cambium which enables trees to grow in thickness from year to 

 year. FYom these views has arisen the common opinion that the winter- 

 killing of buds, twigs, and roots is due to cold alone. Some trees, like 

 people, are said to be hardier than others, because they have a constitu- 

 tion that is more resistant to cold. It is this feeling that plants are like 

 animals, that their greatest foes are heat and cold, which has so long 

 made us overlook the real danger of winter to the plant. Every plant- 

 grower knows that water is the greatest need of the plant. The tree is 

 constantly taking up water at its roots and losing it from its leaves and 



