EFFECTS OF COLD ON FRUIT BUDS. 



FROM DR. HOSKINS, OF VERMONT. 



I cannot say that I have investigated the matter you ask about, but 

 facts have forced themselves on my attention in connection therewith, 

 and it seems very singular that so little notice has been taken of them, 

 considering that it is so well known that peaches, apricots and many other 

 fruits suffer from the effect of cold upon their fruit buds, either or both 

 before and after their opening. I can only attribute the little notice the 

 subject seems to have received, to the probability that these effects of cold 

 upon the fruit buds of the apple have not been marked enough in Europe, 

 or in provincial fruit-growing sections of America, to attract the attention 

 of pomological writers. But here in the cold North it is different. We 

 have tested here in Northeastern Vermont a good many apples, pears^ 

 plums and cherries, the trees of which belong to the "almost hardy" 

 class, and sometimes grow to a large size, yet never bear any perfect fruit, 

 except after an exceptionally mild winter. I have been surprised to see 

 how many plums, cherries and Tolman, Astrachan and St. Lawrence 

 apples, would appear on our market, not one having been offered for so 

 long that the impression had been that the trees were all dead. After a 

 very severe winter, even many of our "iron-clads" Russians, Siberians 

 and hybrids though blooming full, will bear but a light crop. The same 

 result follows even a moderate winter, when a sharp frost comes at bloom- 

 ing time. I noticed last spring that the limbs, even of Siberian hybrids 

 or semi-crabs ("improved crabs"), which chanced to be covered with 

 snow where it has drifted deeply, bore a full crop, although the fruit on 

 the rest of the tree was very scattering and imperfect. A few sorts, 

 notably Oldenburgh and Tetofsky, seem able to endure our very hardest 

 winters and give a full crop. I notice, too, that some varieties, not quite 

 hardy in the wood, are hardy in their fruit buds, so that, though the tree 

 is hurt, it will bear a full crop. This, however, when it occurs, is almost 

 invariably followed by the death of the tree, so that when we get a full 

 crop of plums or cherries, we expect to find the trees mostly dead the next 



