EXPERIMENT STATION WORK WITH PEACHES. 405 



shriveled and drooping. The stamens are next to become injured 

 and take on a brownish appearance Hke the pistil. 



''The other less vital organs of the blossom finally die and after a 

 short tune become a dark worthless substance. If the bud is not 

 open it requires but a longitudinal cut of the knife to determine the 

 exact condition." With severe injury, however, a pinch of the 

 swollen bud is sufficient to demonstrate that the flower within is 

 blasted and worthless. 



PHYSIOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS. 



The blossoming of the peach is practically independent of root 



action. L. H. Bailey reports " that some of the branches of a nectarine 



tree standing alongside his laboratory were drawn into the room 



thi-ough a hole made in the window. As a result, the flower buds 



blossomed on these branches, while the roots out of doors were in 



frozen ground. The reverse of this experiment was carried out at 



the New Jersey Experiment Station by Warren. '' A peach tree was 



planted in a box and so arranged that the roots were inside the 



greenhouse, while the top was outside. No growth took place on 



the outside of the greenhouse, notwithstanding the roots were 



exposed to a summer temperature. The part in the greenhouse 



tlu'ew out a number of sprouts. Later on, the trunk of the tree was 



also brought into the greenhouse where it blossomed within a couple 



of weeks, showing that the exposure of the trunk to winter weather, 



while the roots were kept at a summer temperature, was apparently 



without injury. 



BLOOMING HABITS. 



The California Station has reported a large amount of data '^ 

 relative to the period of blooming, date of ripening, etc., of a large 

 number of varieties. From the very great differences in the behavior 

 of trees often of the same variety and apparently in the same environ- 

 ment, it is concluded that in an abnormal season comparisons between 

 different trees can not safely be made in respect to bloom or leafing, 

 but that the period of ripening is relatively stable. The station has 

 further observed that the varieties that blossom latest are the earliest 

 to ripen. Also that the main crop is more sensitive to February 

 warmth, open their buds more easily, and suffer more from frost. 



The notion that early varieties blossom late and late varieties 

 early, was not found to hold true at the Alabama Station.*^ At 

 that station no uniform relation was found between date of flowering 

 and season of ripening. At the New Mexico Station, as a rule, 

 the early peaches bloom later than the late peaches, the date of 

 blooming, however, of varieties varies from year to year, depending 



a Cornell Sta. Bui. 59. c California Sta. Rpt. 1895, p. 391. 



bNew Jersey Sta. Bui. 197. ^Alabama Sta. Bui. 11. 



