300 



The Principles of Fruit-growing 



degree of cold may be somewhat averted, as we have 

 already found, by exercising judgment in the selection of 

 site and exposure, and by the careful employment of 

 windbreaks; and the danger of winter-killing is much 

 enhanced when the plants make a late autumn growth and 

 go into the winter with immature wood. Yet, winter- 

 kilhng must always be one of the gravest risks of the 

 fruit-grower. 



Winter-injury to the trees or plants usually appears 

 in the form of splits or long checks in the trunks, or in 

 the outright death of the ends of the branches or even of 

 the entire plant, or in discoloration of the wood. For 

 the splits lengthwise the trunk, the proper 

 treatment is to pare off the dead and 

 loosened bark to the "quick" as soon as the 

 bark begins to spread, and to cover the 

 surface of the wound (and the cleft) with 

 bordeaux mixture or paint or gas-tar. 



The proper treatment for frozen-back 

 trees must be determined for each particular 

 case; but the injured part is no longer of 

 any use to the plant, while it may be a 

 positive detriment by accelerating the 

 evaporation of moisture. The best treat- 

 ment for plants seriously injured at the 

 extremities is to cut them back to fresh 

 wood. This heading-in — sometimes 

 to the extent of 3 or 4 feet — removes 

 the driest and weakest parts, and 

 concentrates the energy of the tree 

 into a comparatively small area of 

 Fia. 108. The new wood top. Heavy pruning always tends 



formed around the core of a, ,,, ii. r l i 



winter-injured stem. toward the productiou 01 wood, and 



