7. What Degree of Cold will kill Trees? 



There was a most surprising uniformity in the answers to 

 this question. Nearly all of the correspondents set 20° below 

 zero as the temperature that will kill the peach tree under 

 normal conditions, though some had known them to withstand 

 temperatures of from 20° to 30°, depending upon the condition 

 in which the trees went into winter. 



During the almost unprecedented cold of last winter in New 

 York sweet cherries were quite as tender as peaches; pears 

 were a little but not much hardier than peaches; apples were, 

 of course, hardier than pears, but some leading varieties of 

 apples and pears, as Baldwin and Bartlett, are not much hardier 

 than the hardiest peaches. Sour cherries were the hardiest of 

 the tree fruits. 



8. What Degree of Cold will kill Peach Buds? 

 From the answers to this question we are forced to conclude 

 that much more depends upon the condition of the buds than 

 on the temperature, assuming, of course, a temperature below 

 zero and not greater than 25°, which seems to be the limit that 

 peach buds can stand, even under most favorable conditions. 

 The chief factors influencing tenderness of buds are maturity 

 of buds, variety, and the time at which the buds of a variety 

 finish their resting period and become ready to grow. Some 

 of the factors influencing temperature are lay of the land, 

 proximity to water, stresses of changeable weather, altitude, 

 latitude and currents of air. Fruit buds of other fruits, sweet 

 cherry excepted, are seldom injured. 



9. Are Trees from Northern Nurseries Hardier than 

 those from the South? 

 Many opinions were expressed, but few men had grown 

 trees from different latitudes under such conditions as to 

 answer the question fairly. The answers were in no way 

 decisive, and the question is still an open one to be settled 

 only by direct experimentation with trees of the same varieties 

 from North and South, grown under identical conditions. 



