WINTER-KILLING. 95 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
WINTER-KILLING. 
THERE is a difference in the hardiness of quince trees. 
Some varieties endure severe freezing better than others. 
A variety that lives one winter may die the next because 
of the changes surrounding it; and so a tender variety 
“may live, when one naturally more hardy dies. Sudden 
changes often work disastrously. This was seen in the 
winter of 1853-4 in a belt of country extending from 
New York to Michigan. Quince trees and pear trees on 
quince stocks were greatly injured by rapid successions 
of very warm and intensely cold weather. The result was, 
that nearly all the trees that were not sheltered were de- 
stroyed, or so weakened that they continued to die till 
late in the summer. The warmth had promoted sap 
circulation, and the sap, suddenly freezing, formed little 
crystals in the wood, which lacerated the fibers by every 
motion of the swaying trees. This cause may be supple- 
mented by such a freezing and thawing of the limbs and 
branches as dries the life out of them. In all such cases 
the injury to trees will be in proportion to the expos- 
ure, and so the protection of good wind-breaks is of 
great importance. In that season of such widespread 
loss, those trees that chanced to be sheltered from the 
winds escaped. It was also observed that the loss was 
not so great with trees on clayey soil that shed off the 
water, as on sandy soil that was filled with water. 
Trees transplanted in the fall, too late for the cut 
roots to heal, and for all to resume their normal func- 
tions, may in consequence fail to supply their tops with 
needed moisture, and they will become shriveled and 
winter-kill in consequence. The newly-set tree badly 
planted may suffer by the frost lifting its roots out of 
