168 ANNUAL KEPOKT. 



I have one orcliard all Russian, comprising eighty varieties; every tree except one 

 came through last winter unhurt and are now in good condition. One variety from 

 the Crimea, a country much warmer than this was killed. I doubt whether an 

 an orchard be found either east or west of an equal number of varieties showing such 

 health and vigor. This is the more remarkable as the old varieties hitherto considered 

 iron-clads, in ground adjoining were nearly all destroyed. The country from whence 

 these fruits came is an open prairie country, much farther north than the farthest 

 limit of the United States, very much farther from any large body of water, conse- 

 quentl}^ must have more intense cold with a much drier atmosphere. These condi- 

 tions make it certain that fruits that flourish there will be at home in all the prairie 

 regions of the northwest. 



That our trees freeze to death, I have not the least doubt, but why one kills and 

 another does not, is something I don't understand and probably never shall. 



Prof. Budd cla.ims that trees freeze to death by the expansion of the sap in the 

 sap vessels caused by severe freezing. This is an old theory and one I could never 

 accept. That portion of the tree containing the sap vessels is as easily frozen as a 

 potato, and 1 can see no reason why the sap should not be as thoroughly frozen 

 and expanded, with the thermometer at zero as at thirty or forty below, and yet with 

 the mercury at zero we suffer no injury. It is claimed that the difference in the 

 sap cells of the different varieties determines the different degrees of hardiness; 

 allowing this to be true, how do we account for the fact that trees of the same vari- 

 ety side by side, one kills and the other does not, or how do we account for a tree 

 being half destroyed and the other half uninjured. If the sap cells are alike and 

 all parts of the tree are subjected to the same degree of cold, the effects of the 

 freezing should be the same. 



It is not necessary for us to be able to explain why one variety kills and another 

 does not, the fact is all that is necessary for us to know until we are able to go back 

 in creation to the great first cause and explain the phenomena of its existence. 

 We shall find many mysteries in nature we cannot solve; science can only reveal to 

 us a few faint glimmerings of that effulgent light that shines beyond the reach of 

 human vision. Only in another state of existence, if ever, shall we be able to com- 

 prehend the wonderful mysteries that nature withholds from us here. 



Let us accept the facts as they present themselves rather than adopt a theory and 

 spend all our energies to make facts conform to it. I made a thorough examination 

 of my shrubs and vines the first day they were thawed after the severe cold in Feb- 

 ruary; the injury was as apparent then as it was a month afterwards. 



The evidence was as conclusive to me that they had frozen to death as it would 

 have been had I found a person who had perished in a Dakota blizzard. I would as 

 soon have entertained the idea that the person had died of sun stroke or fever as that 

 thawing killed the trees. 



Vines, shrubs and email fruits can be protected, but our orchard fruits, apples, 

 pears, plums, and cherries should be sufliciently hardy to withstand any amount of 

 cold we may be liable to have. 



The time may come when we can determine the hardiness of a tree or plant by 

 microscopic examinations of its leaves or sap cells, but I have far more faith in the 

 long tests that have been made on the great plains of interior Russia or in this por- 

 tion of our own country. 



