HORTICULTURE. 835 



Cherry culture in Delaware is limited to dooryards and gardens, 

 but the author believes that it could be profitably extended. The 

 sour cherries succeed in all parts of Delaware, but the sweet cherries 

 can be grown profitably only in a small portion of the State. Brown 

 rot is the most destructive fungus disease and the black aphis and 

 curculio are the worst insect enemies. The author believes that sun 

 scald and bursting of the bark are favored by nitrogenous fertilizers, 

 late fall growth, and exposed trunks. He therefore recommends the 

 use of trees with low spreading heads, the selection of soils that do 

 not favor too vigorous wood growth, and the adoption of such cultural 

 methods as tend to early maturity of wood. 



Winter protection of the peach, J. C. Whitten (Missouri Sta. 

 Bui. 38, pp. 140-159, figs. 5). — Winterkilling of the fruit buds of the 

 peach is a very serious drawback to peach culture in the State. In 

 regard to the causes of winterkilling, the author believes that other 

 conditions than mere cold weather are often responsible, since peaches 

 frequently withstand a temperature of — 10 to 2.">° F. with little injury. 

 Trees are made more susceptible to injury from cold by imperfect ripen- 

 ing of the wood and buds, due to a late autumn growth induced by 

 warm weather and rains following the dry weather of August. Sudden 

 changes of temperature, either freezing or thawing, is considered more 

 injurious than gradual changes. The most common cause of winter- 

 killing of peaches in the State is the growth of buds during warm 

 weather in winter, which renders them very susceptible to injury from 

 subsequent freezing. The peach is easily stimulated into growth by 

 the warm weather, which often occurs as early as February. 



Various means of protecting peach buds from winterkilling have 

 been tried at -the station. Of these the effect of whitening the trees 

 and buds has received most attention. In the winter of 1895-'96, a row 

 of young trees running diagonally across the orchard and 4 older trees 

 were sprayed with lime whitewash. The winter was remarkable for its 

 changeable temperatures. During warm periods the unwhitened buds 

 grew perceptibly before any swelling could be detected in the whitened 

 buds. Longitudinal sections of whitened and unwhitened buds taken 

 March 20 showed that in all cases the unwhitened buds had made con- 

 siderable more growth than whitened ones and that in many cases their 

 pistils were injured. Whitened trees bloomed about one day later 

 than the unwhitened ones. It is thought that the difference in time 

 of blossoming was much less than it would have been in a normal 

 season; the weather became suddenly warm with a dry wind at blos- 

 soming time, forcing all varieties into bloom at nearly the same time. 

 Only 20 per cent of the flowers that opened on the unwhitened trees 

 were uninjured and only a few of these set fruit. On the whitened 

 trees 80 per cent of the flowers were perfect and more fruit set than on 

 the unwhitened trees. 



In the winter of lS96-'97 the same trees were again whitened. A 

 number of illustrations are given of both whitened and unwhitened 



