412 REPORT OF OFFICE OF EXPERIMENT STATIONS. 



of poorer quality, and contained more dead wood than the trees 

 pruned moderately severe. In these experiments the prunmg was 

 done at intervals of ten dsijs between April 1 and Ma}" 1. No vari- 

 ation in the growth of the trees that could be ascribed to the difference 

 in time of pruning was observable. 



F. A. Waugh, at the Massachusetts Hatch Station reports ° better 

 results in moderately pruning back winter-injured trees than either 

 no pruning or ''dehorning." 



In experiments with injured trees at the Missouri Station, J. C. 

 Wliitten found ^ that trees of bearmg age which were cut back into 

 2-year-old wood, in the case of young trees and to 3 or 4 year-old 

 wood in older trees, thus leaving stubs of the main limbs from 3 to 4 

 feet long, made the best growth. With young trees only 2 j^ears old 

 the best results were secured in cutting them back so as to leave only 

 the trunk and spurs of the main branches 2 or 3 inches long. With 

 1-year-old trees, cutting back nearly to the original bud and training 

 up a single sprout resulted m fine trees. Trees that were cut back 

 into more than 4-year-old wood failed to grow in many cases, showing 

 that in very old wood the buds are too dormant to be easily started 

 into growth. As at the Michigan Station, ecjually good results were 

 obtained in pruning trees any time after the severe cold of winter up 

 to the time the buds begin to start in the spring. Good cultivation 

 is believed to be of more than usual benefit to peach trees during the 

 spring and summer following severe winter injury. 



Somewhat different from these results are those reported by the 

 Arkansas Station,*^ where trees severely winter injured by a tempera- 

 tm-e of —26° F. were saved by severe pruning back, and produced a 

 heavy crop in 1902, while orchards not treated jjroduced nothing and 

 were in a feeble, dying condition. Trees lightly cut back were not 

 so satisfactory as those heavily pruned. This appears to be an excep- 

 tional result. 



In concluding this phase of the subject, the recommendations of 

 M. B. Waite,*^ of this Department, may be taken as succinctly stating 

 the treatment to give winter-injured peach trees. These are to the 

 effect that when peaches are injured b}^ freezing so that the bark is 

 entirely blackened, dead, and more or less sej^arated from the trunk, 

 and the wood turned a very dark brown coh)r, the trees are ])robal)ly 

 dead be^^ond all question and .slioukl be treated accordingly. If, 

 however, the bark is only slightly separated from the wood and only 

 somewhat browned and discolored, the wootl of the trunk being 



a Massachiisetts Hatch Sta. Rpts. 1904, p. 166, and 1905, p. 47. 



'> Missouri Sta. Bui. 55. 



c Arkansas Sta. Bui. 79. 



dJI. S. T)q)l. \<^r.. liurcau of Plant Iiuluslry Bui. 51, pt. 3. 



