THE WINTEB CARE OF FRUIT TREES. 347 



observations have led me to believe that the injury results from 

 lack of moisture and not from cold. To prove that this is the case, 

 I need only refer to the past winter. It was surely cold enough 

 and cold long- enough to kill the trees, if the cold were what de- 

 stroys them. 



During the past summer I have driven over almost all of Clay 

 county, large portions of Becker and Polk counties in Minnesota 

 and Grand Forks county. North Dakota. On account of the ex- 

 tremely cold and long winter, I had expected to find many injured 

 trees. I observed them closely everywhere and am pleased to say 

 that I did not find a single tree of our hardy varieties that had 

 sustained any apparent injury. On the contrary, the apple trees 

 fruited heavily everywhere, even where they had no shelter at all. 



In southern ^Minnesota large numbers of trees were injured and 

 many killed outright. \\'hy this difference? It certainly was no 

 colder, but while the ground was very wet when it froze in the north, 

 it was dry when it froze in the south. In the north nature gave 

 them a heav>- mulch of snow, while in the south the ground was 

 generally left bare. If the trees in northern Minnesota had gone 

 through such a winter with the ground dry and bare, I dare say 

 there would have been few uninjured trees and no frujt. Now 

 we cannot fence out the cold, but we may conserve the moisture. 



I found, on the grounds of 'Mv. F. W. Schlaberg, at Grand 

 Forks, young catalpa, horse chestnut, hydrangea and other half 

 hardy shrubs that had not been injured in the least. The catalpa 

 had fine foliage extending to each terminal bud. Mr. Schlaberg 

 informed me that he makes a practice of turning on the hose, satu- 

 rating the ground well before it freezes, and his shrubbery always 

 comes through the winter safely. 



Consider the spring of 1903. In southern Alinnesota during 

 the time apple trees were in bloom we had constant heavy and 

 cold rains ; no cessation of them. If there had been no apples that 

 year people would have said the rains washed off the pollen. The 

 trees, however, fruited heavily, and the reason may be found in 

 the fact that they came through the previous winter with the ground 

 thoroughly wet, and, as a result, their vitality was strong; prov- 

 ing, it seems to me, that the setting of fruit depends more upon the 

 vigor of the tree than upon weather conditions at blossoming time. 

 Fully three-fourths of our home grown trees that die are lost princi- 

 pally on account of neglect, partially because of sunscald and 

 blight — and the cold wave made a scapegoat for it all. 



Now, an effort to prevent injury which began only with the 

 advent of winter would be much like lockinaf the stable after the 



