FRUITS FOR THE NORTH. 105 



APPENDIX. 



FRUITS FOR THE COLD NORTH. 



T. H. HOSKINS, M. !>.. IN RURAL NEW YORKER, AUGUST 1, 1885. 



The winter of 1884-85 was the coldest known in Northern New 

 England fqr at least a quarter of a century. The thermometer 

 went lower, stayed low longer, and went low oftener than in other 

 cold winters, and all these things conjoined to produce a maxi- 

 mum of ill effects upon our fruit trees. In addition, the snow 

 was slow in coming, the ground not being permanently covered 

 until near Christmas, so that unmulched trees suffered more or 

 k-ss from root-killing. The only thing lacking to make it the 

 worst of all possible winters for orchardists was a violent alterna- 

 tion of temperatures. The winter was unbrokenly cold. 



Such a winter is by no means an unmixed evil. For the ex- 

 perimental tree grower it was a genuine test winter, enabling him 

 to form a correct judgment as to the hardiness of his trees. With 

 between one and two hundred species and varieties in my grounds, 

 I am able to report results which will be useful to many readers 

 along our northern border and in the Dominion. 



The most prominent fact demonstrated is the general worth- 

 lessness, "in the cold North," of all tree fruits of Western Eu- 

 rope. Apples, pears, plums and cherries were alike destroyed or 

 crippled; hardly one, even of those of Canada, escaped. Never- 

 theless, the efforts of our Canadian neighbors have not been 

 without their value, for their seedlings and selections give us the 

 hardiest of the West European stock. That there is a vast dif- 

 ference among them in hardiness, all with experience in growing 



