74 MAINE AGRICULTURAIv EXPERIMENT STATION. I906. 



There is little doubt that, to a large extent, the injury noted 

 was due to the full crop of fruit borne in 1904, immediately 

 following a trying season, and succeeded by a particularly severe 

 winter. In the early part of the season of 1903, there was a 

 very slight rainfall. This drought was followed late in the 

 season by excessive rains which caused a full development of 

 fruit buds and late growth of wood. Though the trees did not 

 appear to suffer much after the trying winter which followed, 

 they were doubtless considerably weakened, and the heavy loads 

 of fruit borne in the next season left them in an exhausted con- 

 dition before the second severe winter came on. From the first, 

 the winter of 1904-5 was trying. In December there were 

 twenty-six mornings when the mercury went to zero or below, 

 and several times during the winter 20° to 30° below zero were 

 reached. As a (probable) result of these conditions, the trees 

 suffered as indicated. In almost every case coming under the 

 writer's observation, the trees which suffered most were those 

 which bore a full crop the previous year. 



The injury was manifested by the killing of the smaller limbs,, 

 and in many cases by the death of the whole tree. The central 

 portions of the tops of many Gravenstein trees were ruined. 

 Many Baldwin tops were thinned. So far as observed, how- 

 ever, there was not a marked difference in the destruction o£ 

 nursery grown Baldwins as compared with those top-worked 

 on seedling stocks; although it is commonly supposed that the 

 trunk of the Baldwin is tender.* 



Trees which had been well cultivated and fertilized, if allowed 

 to overbear were, in many cases, ruined. One Baldwin tree 

 which bore 8>^ barrels of fruit in 1904 (see figure 10, Bui. 122) 

 was practically ruined. There is little doubt that had one-half 

 of the fruit been removed from such trees early in the summer, 

 less trouble would have been experienced. 



In neglected orchards, or in many cases where good thrifty 

 orchards were left in sod, the injured trees continued to deteri- 

 orate, and many died later in the season. In those cases where 

 the land was plowed and fertilized, however, the trees started a 

 new growth of vigorous shoots near the base of the main limbs, 

 and it will be possible to build a new top on such. 



»In Bulletin 269, N.Y. Agr. Expt. Sta.,page 336, Eustace reports that in 1903 young 

 nursery trees of Baldwin are very susceptible to injury by cold; and Baldwin 

 and Gravenstein are reported as injured most by some New York growers. 



Mr. F. H. Morse of Oxford County, Me., reports injury to the Baldwin trunks in 

 winter of 1904.5. 



