39 2 CONNECTICUT EXPERIMENT STATION REPORT, IQI2. 



injured and dead trees with no sign of the blight on them. 

 There were others with the bark killed on the south or south- 

 west exposures, and sound on the northern, as shown in Plate 

 XXIII c by the dark and white wood ; and on many of these 

 there were no signs of the blight fungus as yet. There is no 

 doubt that these trees had been injured by an attack of sun- 

 scorch winter-injury, complicated probably by summer droughts. 

 That we are not alone in believing that these winters did not 

 confine their injurious effects to Connecticut or to fruit trees, 

 that they may have had some connection with the chestnut 

 blight, and that some persons have attributed their effects to 

 fungous and bacterial troubles in certain cases, we shall attempt 

 to show by the following quotations. 



Concerning the injury to fruit trees caused by the severe 

 winter of 1903-04, Waite, of the United States Bureau of Plant 

 Industry (Bull. 51), writes: "The severe cold weather of the 

 past winter, especially the intense cold of January 4th and 5th, 

 resulted in very severe damage by freezing to orchards in New 

 York and New England, especially in the Hudson and Con- 

 necticut valleys. The damage was found to be mainly to peach, 

 Japanese plums and pear trees, and the most serious harm was 

 largely confined to the lower levels and pockets." 



Eustace, of the Geneva, N. Y., Station (Bull. 269), in his 

 discussion of this winter injury, says: "The winter of 1903-04 

 was an unusually severe one throughout New York state. In 

 many places the temperature was the lowest on record, and the 

 periods of extreme cold were protracted. As a result the end of 

 the winter found many of the orchards, especially those of peaches 

 and pears, extensively and seriously injured. * * * The damage 

 was greatest in the Hudson River valley, where the cold was most 

 severe, more than forty degrees below zero being reported. * * * 

 At the end of the winter the external appearance of the trees 

 was entirely normal, the bark of the trunk was smooth and of 

 normal color, and the twigs on all parts of the tree were plump 

 and bright. Nothing about the trees looked unusual or wrong, 

 but upon cutting into the trunk anywhere above the snow line, 

 it was found that both bark and wood were discolored for some 

 depth into the trunk. * * * Altitude, air drainage, and con- 

 dition of the soil had a very important bearing upon the severity 

 of the injury. The advantages of a high altitude were best 



