THE KANSAS PEACH. 85 



WINTER PROTECTION OF THE PEACH. 



By Prof. J. C. Written, in Bulletin No. 38 of the Missouri Experiment Station. 

 SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 



1. In Missouri, winter-killing of the fruit-buds of the peach is 

 usually due to the unfavorable effects of freezing after they have been 

 stimulated into growth by warm weather during winter or early spring. 



2. This early swelling and growth of the buds is due to the warmth 

 they receive, is practically independent of root action, and may take 

 place on warm, sunny days in winter, while the roots are frozen and 

 dormant. 



3. Peach fruit-buds may safely endure a temperature of ten or 

 twenty degrees below zero, provided they mature well in autumn, are 

 entirely dormant, and the cold comes on gradually. 



•4. Zero weather may kill fruit-buds that have swollen during pre- 

 vious warm days, or that were not properly ripened in autumn. 



5. Shading or whitening peach trees to prevent their al)Sorbing heat 

 on sunny days opposes [retards] growth of the buds, and is, conse- 

 quently, a protective measure. 



6. Shading the trees with board sheds enabled peach buds to sur- 

 vive the winter uninjured, when eighty per cent, of unprotected buds 

 were killed. Trees protected in this way blossomed later, remained in 

 bloom longer, set more fruit in proportion to the number of appar- 

 ently perfect flow^ers, and held their fruit better than any other trees 

 on the station grounds. This is the most effective means of winter 

 protection tried at the station, but it is probably too expensive for 

 commercial orchards. 



7. Whitening the twigs and buds by spraying them with white- 

 wash is, on account of its cheapness and beneficial efPects, the most 

 promising method of winter protection tried at this station. 



8. Whitened buds remained practically dormant until April, when 

 unprotected buds swelled perceptibly during warm days late in Feb- 

 ruary and early in March. Whitened buds blossomed three to six 

 days later than unprotected buds. Eighty per cent, of whitened buds 

 passed the winter safely, when only twenty per cent, of unwliitened 

 buds passed the winter unharmed. 



Thermometers covered with purple material registered, during 

 bright, sunny weather, from ten to over twenty degrees higher than 

 thermometers covered with white material of similar texture, thus in- 

 dicating that whitened peach twigs might be expected to absorb much 

 less heat than those that are not whitened. 



