30 HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF NEW YORK. 



not sufficient moisture to stand the strain, and the \ result is that the tree 

 dies frorh lack of moisture, and the bark is killed by the lack of moisture. 



T. V. Munson — I think the name of air drainage, in some places 

 is not quite the right name. We have in connection with drainage a 

 down flow in my region, located on the south side of Red River, located 

 some one hundred and seventy to two hundred feet above the bed of the 

 river. I have known several times that we have succeeded splendidly with 

 certain varieties of fruit, peaches, for example, while those on the opposite 

 side of the river, the north side of the river. Red River running in that 

 region from west to east, that we had full crops while on the other side 

 they had none. There seemed on those occasions, a very slow movement 

 of the atmosphere from north to south, what we would term a "freezing 

 norther." It seems that in that case the valley of the river is quite broad 

 and heavily forested, so that the heat that had accumulated in the valley 

 during the day gradually flowed upward over the bluff on the south side 

 of the river and kept the trees at such a temperature that they were 

 saved, while on the north side they were lost, but in other cases where 

 we have had still freezes, that is, where the air became apparently a dead 

 freeze, great destruction was the result. I have seen that illustrated in 

 my own old place, north of Denison. The elevation of the hill was about 

 fifty feet above that of the little creek where I reside, and frequently plants 

 were killed in the bottom, the same varieties that were not hurt at 

 the top of the hill, and I observed that the difference in temperature was 

 between 8 and lo degrees. Now, in that case, and in some other cases, 

 the drainage seems to be a wedge of cold air settling gradually down into 

 the hollow, and displacing the warm air there, and it flows up over the 

 hill. That is the character of the drainage, it seems to me. I remember 

 very distinctly, four or five years ago quite a severe wet freeze came when 

 the grapes had pushed from 6 to 8 inch shoots, nearly at the blooming 

 period, and my present place lay pretty well on the little plateau between 

 Red River and the Creek south, and on the upper portion of that grapes 

 were not damaged at all. We made a good crop. I noticed at the lower 

 portion of our place, probably fifty foot below the upper portion, frost 

 began and from there on for fifty miles, all vineyards in the valley were 

 killed. There were no grapes at all, except on the scattered secondary 

 buds pushed forward, and in this case it would seem that there was a lake 

 of cold air below the freezing temperature — to be considered a lake, al- 

 though it may have had a slow motion down the valley and cr-eek. The 

 creek is quite crooked and pretty well forested, so there would be very 

 little motion, but in that regard, it was like a lake, like the lake mentioned 

 — and below the line there was no damage. 



The President — I would like to mention one or two illustrations, of 

 the economic influences and values resulting from this question of this 

 fact of air drainage. 



In the north of this latitude, the peach crop is somewhat uncertain, 

 as a rule, taking it over the country generally. It is a fact in this whole 



