STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 43 



4. "The injurious effects of repeated thawing and freezing, 

 long continued frost, or strong drying winds are to be explained 

 by the scarcity of water that results from the interrupted or at 

 least reduced passage of water." 



It may seem on first thought that the second statement is a 

 direct contradiction to the third, but it will be seen that one 

 means the absence of water before the frost while the other 

 means the loss of water from the tissues resulting from freezing. 



Now let us look to the weather record for January, 1907, as 

 taken at Orono. Out of 23 days following January 8 there were 

 only two in which the temperature rose above the freezing point. 

 January 17 with a maximum of — 3 degrees F. and a minimum 

 of — 40 degrees F. or 72 degrees below the freezing point and 

 January 24 with a maximum of +9 degrees F. and a minimum 

 of — 35 degrees F. or 67 degrees below freezing furnish the 

 extreme low temperature conditions. Think of the conditions 

 of the cell with regard to moisture in the 7 days following the 

 — 35 degrees F. record on January 24. Not a maximum over 

 +24 and a minimum varying from o degrees F. to — 24 degrees 

 F. or from 32 degrees to 56 degrees below the freezing point of 

 water. By this time they must have been as dry as the prover- 

 bial bone. Nor is this the entire story. Let us look to the two 

 exceptions in the period already noted, where the temperature 

 did go above the freezing point. We find these to be together^ 

 exactly midw^ay between the two lowest records, giving us the 

 two highest and the two lowest records in the month occurring 

 within eight days. From — 40 degrees F on the 17th we jump 

 85 degrees to +45 degrees F. on the 20th. From +47 degrees 

 F. on the 21st we drop 82 degrees to — 35 degrees F. on the 

 24th, followed by the week of low temperature already men- 

 tioned. A little closer inspection of the change from severe cold 

 to thawing weather shows that it was moreover quite abrupt. 

 Since the daily observation is made at 2 P. M. the minimum 

 record would ordinarily represent the preceding night, or most 

 frequently just before sunrise on the day of the record. Start- 

 ing with the 17th we have a minimum of — 40 degrees F. and 

 no time during the day did the temperature go above — 3 degrees 

 F. On the i8th the highest record was only -^II degrees F. 

 Before the morning of the 19th the temperature dropped again 

 to — 13 degrees F. and only reached +20 degrees F. during the 



