CHAPTER XXII. 



INJURIES TO TREES AND FRUIT. 



FROST. 



The best way to ameliorate frosting is to plant 

 fig trees in heavy soil, clay loam being preferable. 

 The first two or three years growth is not nearly so 

 vigorous as in sandy loam, and clay lands require 

 much more labor to bring them to an initial condi- 

 tion of tilth, but it pays. Every few days of warm 

 winter weather the sap starts growing in trees on 

 light ground, thus inviting disaster. It is not the 

 warming of roots in periods of sunshine so much as 

 the rapid rise of temperature of surface air around 

 the tops, the result of radiation and reflection, 

 starch stored in wood cells becoming active from 

 heat and moving toward buds. "Fig trees are 

 easily frosted, especially when caught by the frost 

 with their sap in full circulation," said Eisen. On 

 the other hand, their resistant power is evident, for 

 even in the latitude of Washington and Paris, where 

 zero weather occurs, continuous cold is not injuri- 

 ous. They are frosted oftener around New Orleans 

 than in the vicinity of Memphis. The fitful South- 

 ern winters usually have periods of cool weather 

 preceded by bright, warm sunshine for several days, 

 sometimes for two weeks. If the orchard is in 

 sandy ground no amount of root manipulation, or 



