WINTER INJURY IN RELATION TO SPECIFIC FRUITS 323 



valley during the same winter. Pointing out that pear orchards are 

 planted customarily in low rich ground, in other words, on sites more 

 inviting to winter injury than those ordinarily chosen for peaches, he 

 states that pears were as severely injured as peaches and do not possess the 

 recuperative powers of the peach. Elevation made great difference in 

 the amount of damage. "The young pear trees are rather less hurt than 

 the older trees, as in the case of the peach, but it should be noted in this 

 connection that young pear trees having the wood blackened, although 

 they will push out their wood and make a start, are very apt to decline or 

 else maintain their life in a very feeble manner as a result of the dead 

 wood at the heart. They have not the ability to recover by depositing a 

 thrifty layer of sap-wood. Pear trees under 3 or 4 years of age which are 

 badly frozen and which show blackened or discolored wood, even though 

 the bark may look normal from the outside and may appear to be alive 

 and quite fresh when cut into, should be cut off below the snow hne 

 and allowed to sprout." 



Injury to pears occurred in the localized Michigan freeze of October, 

 1906.^^2 Though peaches were killed, it was only in low places and in 

 vigorously growing trees that pears were seriously injured. Blackening 

 of the wood was found. Apples were very little injured under the same 

 conditions. In parts of Washington an early winter freeze caused split- 

 ting of trunks on the south side and blackening in the wood of the fruit spurs 

 down to the limbs, with damage in some sections to the blossom buds.^^ 

 Bailey* reports killing of fruit buds at Ithaca, N. Y., with no injury to 

 wood, during a dry cold winter. Injury to wood occurred elsewhere, he 

 states, at the same time, but evidently he does not consider this severe. 



The following varieties have been reported suitable for culture in 

 Vermont and hence presumably hardy : Vermont Beauty, Flemish Beauty, 

 Anjou, Winter Nelis, Onondaga, Tyson, Lawrence and Sheldon. ^^s As 

 "succeeding in many gardens" Angouleme, Bartlett, Buffum, Seckel, 

 Louise Bonne de Jersey are mentioned. At Orono, Maine, a little beyond 

 the northern limit of the Baldwin apple, the hardier varieties have been 

 found to be Clapp Favorite, Flemish Beauty, Howell, Lawrence, Sheldon 

 and Winter NeUs.^^' Chandler states that Anjou is one of the hardiest 

 varieties at Ithaca, N. Y., probably a little more so than Clapp Favorite 

 and Sheldon, certainly less than Flemish Beauty. Bartlett is generally 

 conceded to be rather tender. 



Flemish Beauty has proved the hardiest variety of the better class of 

 pears tested at Ottawa, Ont."^ Evidence elsewhere corroborates this 

 selection, though even this varietj^ is by no means immune to winter 

 injury in regions of commercial fruit growing.^"^ 



The Peach. — The difference in the hardiness problem in peaches 

 north and south has been discussed, maturity being stated as the leading 

 factor in the north, the rest period in the south. Root killing has been 



