A Consideration of Adverse Temperatures 321 



commercial scale, but they offer a measure of protection 

 which may be of considerable value under some conditions. 



BANKING THE TREES 



Reference again may be made to the observations recorded 

 in a previous section (page 319) on the effect of banking 

 peach trees as a means of protecting them against winter 

 injury. It is difficult to correlate this practice with the 

 evident results in the Lake Erie peach district of Ohio during 

 the winter of 1903-1904 but they appear conclusive so far 

 as certain conditions are concerned. 



It has been suggested that the section of a tree latest to 

 mature and reach a state of dormancy is at the collar, or 

 crown, or the portion just at the surface of the ground. The 

 protection afforded by banking the trees in the instance 

 referred to appears to give credence to this view, and that 

 where the trees were not banked they suffered injury at the 

 surface of the ground because they were not well ripened at 

 that point. 



Blake ^ has likewise called attention to the fact that young 

 peach trees in some parts of New Jersey, especially during 

 their second winter after planting and where they occupy 

 exposed sites, may be injured or even killed as a result of the 

 swaying of tops in the wind and the consequent opening of 

 the soil about the trunks at the surface of the ground. The 

 openings thus made about the trunks become filled with water 

 which in turn freezes and injures the tree at this point. The 

 exposure of the crown to low temperatures, as above sug- 

 gested, may also explain the injury. By mounding the trees 

 this trouble can be prevented in many cases. 



1 N. J. Expt. Sta. Bull. 231. 



