Pruning Peach Trees 207 



more or less depleted and lacking in vigor, it follows that 

 such trees are apt to suffer more from extremely low tem- 

 peratures than comparatively young, vigorous trees. 



Winter injury may appear in every degree from the killing 

 of the fruit-buds, which usually are the first to suffer injury 

 from a low temperature, to the complete killing of the tree. 

 If the buds are killed, the injury can be detected within a day 

 or two after the return of thawing temperatures by cutting 

 them open in the middle lengthwise and noting the embryo 

 peach which occupies the center of each one. If it is bright 

 and fresh in appearance, and the pistil — the very small 

 slender stem-like organ about one-half inch long that extends 

 from the apex of the embryo fruit — is not w^ithered, the bud 

 is in normal condition ; but if either the pistil or embryo fruit 

 is dark and discolored, it is doubtless dead. 



There is no sure sign by which a tree that has been killed 

 can be detected at once. Both Waite ^ and Eustace ^ have 

 called attention to the fact that a tree injured by low tem- 

 peratures may show no external appearance of it immediately. 

 Where the ground is covered with snow to some depth when 

 the low temperature occurs, no injury results below the snow 

 line. Above this line the extreme injury that is likely to 

 occur is manifest in the splitting of the bark on the trunk and 

 perhaps the larger limbs and its separation from the wood. 

 When the separation is complete, it is safe to assume the 

 tree is dead or will die regardless of anything that may be 

 done. When the injury is similar to the preceding in kind 

 but the bark is only slightly separated from the wood, 

 experience indicates that the tree may survive and be of 

 service for some years. 



1 Bur. of Plant Ind. Bull. 51. 

 « N. Y. Agr. Exp. Sta. Bull. 269. 



