EVAPORATION AS A CLIMATIC FACTOR. 59 



at once, you must provide shade for it so as to prevent evaporation. 

 Now, it works differently whether the tree be dormant or active. I have 

 observed frequently that while in the spring we cultivate and work up 

 a plot of ground, say for a peach tree, we push them into bud and bloom 

 more rapidly than if we had not disturbed that soil. The evergreens 

 cultivated in the same way will push a little more rapidly and become 

 filled with sap sooner and the sharp freezing following, we lose the 

 first crop of buds and shoots. They are more sensitive to frost. That is 

 the young growths when they are full of sap, are more sensitive to 

 frost than when they are dormant. When they are dormant, it seems that 

 they are more hardy. 



The President Reference has been made to transplanting Magnolia 

 grandiflora. I would say I have been laboring for fifteen or twenty years 

 to acclimate it to this lat : tude, because it is, as you all know, the grandest 

 magnolia in the world. So far as I know, the most successful specimens 

 in this part of the country are at Riverton, New Jersey, a few miles 

 north of Philadelphia. If there are any north of that, I would like to 

 know it. I think this region is the center of the world, and that this 

 place should not be satisfied until we get Magnolia grandiflo'ra here, 

 so I tried with a great number of specimens, but never could get them 

 through a longer period than five years, and never got them to bloom. 

 I thought by growing a number of specimens and protecting them well 

 the first winter, a little bit the next winter and a little bit less the next 

 winter after that, I should, by the fifth winter succeed, but unfortunately, 

 I was like the good German who said he got his horse down successfully 

 to a point where he could live on one straw a day, and then the horse 

 died, so when I got this along to the fifth year, it died. So this theory 

 of adapting the tree to its environment by slow process has not been suc- 

 cessful with Magnolia grandiflora. The average temperature is just as 

 low at Riverton, N. J., as it is at my place, although I am a good way 

 north and there are other conditions affecting the surroundings, so it 

 is not temperature alone. I don't know what it is, nor do I know what 

 is the matter with the magnolia. The chief factor, however, I do not 

 think is temperature. 



Mr. Von Herf I found a great difference between individuals. We 

 have to consider that practically all of the magnolias we see are raised 

 from seed, and if you pay attention, you will find there is as great a 

 difference as between seedling apples, or any kind you grow from seed. 

 Some grow tall and some not so tall. Some have broad leaves and others 

 have leaves which are narrow as a laurel, also they differ in their ca- 

 pacity to bloom, and they differ in the same way as to hardiness. I found 

 a large number of such seedling magnolias in a section where they are 

 frostbitten, and some so tender that they freeze to the ground. These are 

 individual specimens. Now, the most northern I have seen were in 

 Philadelphia, and right in the city. I was recently in the city and I saw 



