MISCELLANEOUS PAPERS. 
137 
This means destruction, it can only be cured by removing the damaged 
wood with the pruning knife; by cutting back to sections of greater vitality. 
In doing this we have often to sustain, not only the loss of the new growth,, 
but that of the entire tree. Yet it seems to me to be the only solution of a 
most perplexing problem. 
We do know that many sorts of apples, crabs, pears, plums, peaches, 
apricots and cherries are succeeding well in Montana. We have re- 
corded temperatures— ranging from 19 to 50 degrees below— to which the 
above mentioned trees were exposed. In 1898 there was 42 degrees below 
before the ground had frozen; a great loss was sustained; but strange to relate 
the loss was mainly confined to young and recently set trees; whilst the 
older and more valuable orchards came through with the loss of the fruit 
only. 
The Montana State Horticultural Board is behind a systematic canvass of 
the orchards of the state, its object being to formulate a list of those trees 
which are planted in the state, together with the behavior of the different sorts 
under the effects of a season like the past; a season unprecedented in America 
in its harmful effects upon fruit trees. 
This information will be available to- the readers of the American Pomolog- 
ical Society and will be a valuable contribution to the cause for which the 
society so ably stands. 
There is little doubt but that the root-grafted tree will prove itself to be a 
hardier tree than the budded. The “Duchess” [Oldenburg], the “Wealthy” 
and trees of similar degrees of hardiness have proved themselves sufficiently 
hardy to withstand any possible extremes of Montana weather. But I sup- 
pose the perplexing problem as to the most valuable varieties for the planter to- 
set, will still exist, so many of the so-called semi-hardy trees have withstood 
the severest test — enough anyhow to cloud the judgment of the man wanting 
fruit that is both hardy and of a first class quality. 
It is not always the most intense cold that kills. We have proved that point 
conclusively on the grounds of the Montana Experiment Station. 
Selections were made of 125 different varieties of apples and crabs grown in 
the station nurseries for planting in a new trial orchard. These trees were 
dug between the dates of October 28 and November 14. They were heeled 
in by a very careful man, and securely buried on high ground two and a half 
feet below the surface. Between these dates the minimum temperature as 
indicated by the Fahrenheit thermometor averaged 23 3-5 degrees, the lowest 
being 2 degrees, the highest 33 degrees. No trees were dug whilst it was 
freezing, and there was no such exposure as would have caused the results 
as stated. 
The trees had all received the same treatment, but of the sorts dug, the 
following have not leaved out at this writing, August 10; they doubtless 
will not do so now, and if they did, it would be too late for such growth to 
amount to anything, it would not possess sufficient vitality to supply needed 
food for future growth. 
These trees were all under the same conditions as to propagation, irriga- 
tion, digging, burying, removal from the pit, heeling in and transplanting. 
The casual examiner would have seen no perceptible difference in the struc- 
ture of the wood. All the new wood, as well as the old, was sound and plump 
in appearance, and apparently in the most perfect condition. It was not sus- 
pected that any physical reason existed in the tree to prevent growth, until 
it was too late to search for the cause by chemical analysis. 
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