256 Missouri Agr. Exp. Sta. Research Bulletin No. 8 



It will be seen that not only in this case were the scales no protect- 

 ion against the cold, but in actual fact those buds that had the scales 

 removed had very uniformly a smaller percentage killed than those 

 still protected by the bud scales. This is at least true during the most 

 dormant condition in winter. Toward spring when the buds have 

 swelled considerably, during warm days, there seems to be practi- 

 cally no difference between the percentage killed with the scales 

 removed and those with the scales on. This seems to demonstrate 

 conclusively that, at least in the case of peaches, the bud scales do 

 not serve to protect the bud from cold, but as Wiegand points out, 

 the bud scales serve only to protect the bud from loss of water by 

 evaporation. 



RELATION OF LOW TEMPERATURE TO PEACH GROWING. 



Peach Wood Killing. As mentioned previously, on some years 

 the peach wood is badly injured. Generally this injury follows very 

 severe cold winters with lower temperatures than are necessary to 

 kill the buds. However, on some years the wood has been reported 

 badly injured even when a fair set of bloom followed. It is difficult 

 to say just what weather conditions favor winter killing of peach 

 wood in all cases. In the case of young trees, one to three years 

 old, Emerson^ found that in Nebraska they are more likely to survive 

 the average winter if forced to mature their wood early in autumn, 

 by using gross feeding cover crops as previously mentioned, though 

 older trees were not benefited by such a practice. Eustace- reports 

 that following the severe winter of 1903-04 in New York, peach trees 

 more than seven years of age were killed worse than peach trees 

 about seven years of age or younger, except trees one year in the 

 orchard which killed the worst. Green^ and Ballou, following the 

 same winter, observed that old trees were killed worse than young 

 trees and that trees kept in a good condition of vigor by use of stable 

 manure, mulch, etc., were in better condition than trees that had been 

 permitted to become weak in their growth. This may have been 

 partly because of the dry weather in early summer followed by wet 

 weather in late summer and autumn. The old trees would have been 

 checked in growth more by the drought and thrown into more succu- 

 lent growth by the later rains, while the more vigorous young trees 

 would be better able to secure sufficient water and tend to continue 



>Neb. Agr. Exp. sta. Bui. 79, 1903. (BlbL No. 33). 



2N. Y. (Geneva) Exp. Sta. BiU. 269. 1905. (BibL No. 38). 



'Ohio Agr. Exp. Sta. Bui. 157. 1894. (Blbl. No. 48). 



