WINTER INJURIES 19 



WINTER KILLING 



The hardiness of the varieties which he cultivates 

 is a point of great importance to the grower. The 

 question of what constitutes hardiness has puzzled 

 growers much, and is still unsettled. That the con- 

 ditions of the season and of growth aft'ect in great 

 measure the ability to endure the following winter 

 is certain, although if a variety is constitutionally 

 tender in a given locality, there is little hope that 

 any kind of treatment will make it hardy. Disease 

 or the intense heat of summer may so weaken plants 

 that they are unable to withstand the most favorable 

 winters, while strong, healthy plants will often endure 

 the most trying ones unhurt. Raspberry plants taken 

 up and removed to the forcing house in the fall of 

 1892 showed all the ordinary symptoms of winter 

 killing when starting into growth under glass, yet 

 they had been subjected to only enough cold to 

 admit of a ball of earth being taken up with them when 

 transferred to the house. It is generally believed that 

 after a comparatively dry fall, favoring a slow, well 

 ripened growth, plants endure the winter best, but 

 even this theory of well ripened wood is still open 

 to doubt. It is certain that slender canes pro- 

 duced during the latter part of the season often 

 winter -kill less than those of the whole season's 

 growth. It is unsafe to assert from this, however, 

 that immature wood is hardier, for canes produced 

 late are smaller, and may make firmer, better ripened 

 wood than those of earlier and more vigorous growth. 



