21J: NEBRASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



are very resistant to cold in winter. The same relation exists between 

 various types of plums. The accompanying illustration (fig. 1) shows 

 the degree of maturity of the season's growth of various sorts of plums 

 on September 19, 1902. The trees were all two years old and stood close 

 together in the nursery. The presence of small, newly-formed leaves at 

 the distal end of the Abundance, Wildgoose, and Pottawattamie plums 

 (representatives of the Japanese, Hortulana, and Chicasaw groups re- 

 spectively) indicate that these varieties were still growing at the time 

 the photograph ■w^as taken, while the absence of small, newly-formed 

 leaves and the presence of well-developed terminal buds in the case of 

 Wyant (Americana) and Cheney (Nigra) plums and sand cherry indicate 

 that growth in length had ceased in the case of these trees, even by 

 the 19th of September. Anyone who has ever grown these types of 

 plums in the North knows that the Japanese, Chicasaw, and Hortulana 

 types are injured by a less degree of cold in winter than are the other 

 types seen in the illustration. The difference in winter hardiness com- 

 monly observed in Nebraska between the Abundance, Wildgoose and 

 Pottawattamie plums is not indicated by the illustration, simply because 

 the photograph was taken before either had begun to mature. Had the 

 picture been taken a few weeks later, the hardier Wildgoose and Potta- 

 wattamie would doubtless have shown some degree of maturity, while 

 the tender Abundance might still have been growing. 



Apples. — "Varieties of apples illustrate well the relation between early 

 maturity and resistance to cold. Figure 2 shows twigs of Whitney, 

 Oldenburg, Pi-airie Crab, Wealthy, Ben Davis, Grimes, and a tender 

 French crab seedling. All of these except the last named were taken 

 from one-year-old root grafts in the Experiment Station nursery. The 

 French crab seedling had finished its second season's growth, after hav- 

 ing been lined out in a nursery. It was so very tender to cold that it 

 froze to the ground during the previous rather mild winter. The twigs 

 are shown with or without leaves, just as they were when collected 

 in the nursery, and are arranged in order of hardiness, the tenderest 

 at the right and the hardiest at the left. The ranking of these varieties 

 with reference to resistance to cold winters is not only based upon the 

 writer's personal observation but is in accord, it is believed, with the 

 experience of fruit growers throughout the Northwest. The only variety 

 the rank of which is at all questionable is Prairie Crab. The twigs were 

 cut and photographed December 14, 1904. Had they been taken earlier, 

 even greater differences in maturity would have been expected. A variety 

 like Whitney, for instance, usually completes its length growth by July, 

 even in case of young, vigorous nursery trees, and, while it is probably 

 not thoroughly ripened until much later, it has more of the appearance 

 of ripeness in midsummer than a variety like Grimes has in late 

 autumn. The twigs pictured in the cut, taken as they were in early 

 winter, are of special value in showing the relative maturity of the 

 different varieties at a time of year when any further ripening had been 



