136 
AMERICAN POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
clear of snow which would otherwise hinder open air grazing through the 
winter season. 
Steady, continuous winds from the proper course, usually mean very hot 
or very cold weather— each in its proper season. The gigantic barriers 
thrown athwart the state from the northwest to the southeast, with their 
multitudinous divergent spurs, rob the winds of their power, and cause them 
to play in a minor key — as compared with their force and effect 500 miles to 
the eastward. 
Again, the principal source of soil is from disintegrated rocks! Much of 
the formation of the Rockies is granite, this decomposes rapidly under the 
influence of the elements, and when mixed with humus— as it speedily is — 
forms the ideal soil for tree cultivation. To this disintegrated granite rock is 
undoubtedly added much matter originating in the volcanoes, which formerly 
were largely in evidence throughout this region, but have been extinct for 
ages. These outlying hills and valleys of ours are as rich as the world famed 
slopes of Vesuvius, where the vines bear in profusion their sun-kissed harvest 
of grapes. These hills and valleys of Montana have the same quality of soil; 
and the same titanic forces have created practically the same conditions. 
' These mighty wind breaks act also as conservers of moisture, their high 
lying peaks are clad with matchless white the year round, and the warm, 
heavily laden clouds — borne on the winds from the broad Pacific — give tribute 
to the land in life-giving moisture; whilst the plains country far to the east, is 
lying parched and dry. 
Nor does the orchardist depend on the rains alone; the winter snow, lying 
as it falls, packed like ice and often in the form of slowly moving glaciers, 
gives down a little to the fierce heat of the long summer days, and the regu- 
lar, steady supply of water in the mountain streams, is available for use, 
through the season of greatest need for moisture. 
The position of the state— far to the north— gives us long summer days, and 
the rarity of the atmosphere gives concentrated power to the sun’s rays. 
The first twitter of the early birds can be heard between two and three 
o’clock of summer mornings and medium print can be easily read by good 
eyes well along to ten o’clock p. m. 
With heat, moisture and soil of the best, is it any wonder that trees — in 
common with other plant life — thrive to a degree that is remarkable and at- 
tain early and complete maturity, long before the same trees would under less 
advantageous conditions? 
There are numerous conditions pertaining to tree life that are but imper- 
fectly understood. 
Why a tree should withstand 50 degrees below zero in one„ state and suc- 
cumb at 35 degrees below zero in an adjoining state is one of the problems 
difficult of solution. 
Experience has made me believe that available moisture and condition of 
soil are the main factors in tree growth and prosperity. 
A steady and persistently low temperature, with soil congealed to a depth 
of— say from 4 to 6 feet— or far below the usual depth of roots, in a so called 
humid belt, but which is for the greater portion of the year literally arid, and 
we have all the' conditions present for injury to wood. The crushing, grind- 
ing effect of excessive cold is manifested by the continuous contraction of the 
sap cells; and without any opportunity on the part of the tree to counteract 
this depleted circulation by a new supply of moisture, pumped up from be- 
low’, new wood can neither be made nor nourished. 
