MAINE AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. II 



and fruit plantations generally should not- be cultivated after 

 the first of August. 



The next severe case of winter injury was reported for the 

 winter 1904-5, although some was noted in 1903-4, and the 

 conditions which prevailed this winter doubtless influenced the 

 amount of injury experienced in the last mentioned season. 

 The early part of the season of 1903 had very little rainfall. 

 This drouth was followed late in the season by excessive rains 

 resulting in a full development of fruit buds and late growth of 

 wood. The trees suffered somewhat, but not severely, the fol- 

 lowing winter and bore heavy loads of fruit in 1904, hence all 

 things considered they were that year in a more or less ex- 

 hausted condition at the beginning of the winter. In almost 

 every case coming under the observation of the Station horti- 

 culturist the trees which suft'ered most were those which bore 

 a full crop the season before. In this instance apparently 

 over-bearing was one of the predisposing causes of winter 

 injury. Baldwin and Gravenstein trees were recorded as par- 

 ticularly aft'ected this season. 



The winter 1906-7 was probably the most disastrous in the 

 history of 3ilaine orcharding, the number of trees killed or 

 severely injured being far in excess of any previous records. 

 Xo doubt the short time intervening between this and the last 

 severe winter contributed to the large amount of injury this 

 season, on account of the trees not having fully recovered. 

 However, the winter of 1906-7 was abnormal and the records 

 show that weather conditions were more favorable that season 

 for the production of winter injury than they had been at any 

 other time during the last 44 years. One week in January, 

 1907, deserves particular mention. The two lowest records of 

 the season, — 47° F. and — 35° F., were only 7 days apart and 

 midway between them come two days with a maximum tem- 

 perature of 45° F. and 47° F. respectively. While no doubt 

 the extreme low temperature materially contributed to the 

 amount of injury experienced abrupt changes from thawing to 

 freezing were in all probability more important factors. The 

 conditions following the day cited above, when the tempera- 

 ture reached 47° F. is a good example of this. Between 2 

 P. M. and sunrise next morning the mercury fell 60 degrees or 

 to — 13° F. and this following two days of marked thawing 



