STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. I27 



but a half season's growth when we might let it grow the full 

 season. 



Remark : In our country where we fertilize very heavily, 

 when the severe winter comes we get lots of winter-killing 

 among the young trees, the bark bursting and the trees dying 

 back. It is not a safe thing at all in Nova Scotia to keep up a 

 late growth. 



Prof. Stewart : In that case of course you will have to 

 modify conditions to meet it. 



Ques. Are the winters severe in Pennsylvania ? 



Prof. Stewart : We have had some pretty cold weather there 

 in some instances. Year before last we had weather that ran 

 as low, according to the reports, as 30 below. The actual fact 

 is simply that we had 20 or a little more below zero. But the 

 point is this, — that cold came along in February after we had 

 had a very good preparatory season for the trees to stand it. The 

 suddenness of the coming of the cold makes much more differ- 

 ence than its actual extent. But I will say that we have not had 

 an appreciable bit of winter injury on any of our trees and they 

 are growing in different parts of the state, too. 



Mr. Keyser : You get more freezing and thawing than we 

 do? 



Prof. Stewart: Yes; last winter there was a certain amount 

 of winter-killing in the state, but we didn't get any on any of 

 our different experiments ; it was to that relatively rapid freez- 

 ing and thawing that I attributed the winter-killing last year, 

 especially of peach trees. 



Mr. Morse : What should you say was the average twig 

 growth of those young trees ? 



Prof. Stewart : Well, we have had as much as three feet 

 twig growth on them this past season, for example. The point 

 is that we can get more growth in a given season, we can con- 

 serve moisture better, with certain other methods than we can 

 with tillage, and when you pile those seasons up, one after 

 another, we have bigger trees because of that better moisture 

 conservation. 



Mr. Morse : There is no trouble in getting the bigger trees ; 

 the trouble is getting them without the winter-killing to pay for 

 that. 



