1846 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
188 
DESTRUCTION OF PEACH BUDS. 
It very rarely happens that the young- fruit of the 
peach is killed except by the severe cold of winter. It 
often excites surprise that the cultivator is enabled to 
decide with tolerable certainty, by the time that the se¬ 
vere weather of winter closes, whether a crop may be 
3 xpected. 
The cause most frequently destructive to the peach 
crop in the northern states, is warm weather late in au¬ 
tumn or during winter, causing a slight swelling of the 
buds. After thus started, even though to a slight degree, 
very severe cold destroys them. Cultivators of fruit 
wish to know, as soon as practicable, whether their 
crops are destroyed. When the thermometer sinks 
several degrees below zero, there is nearly always rea¬ 
son to fear that at least a part of the fruit-buds are kill¬ 
ed ; as previous warm weather, even if it has scarcely 
swelled the buds, may have filled them with moisture, 
and rendered them liable to destruction. To deter¬ 
mine the point, then, let the flower buds be examined 
a few days after the cold weather, by cutting them 
transversely through the middle. If they are injured, 
the centre will appear dark brown, as represented by a , 
Fig. 56 ; if uninjured, they 
will appear of a uniform 
greenish white, with no 
brown spot at the centre, as 
shown by b , the stamens, 
and other parts of the flow¬ 
er being entirely fresh. A 
little practice will enable 
any one to determine this 
point at a glance. 
The first buds are readily 
distinguished from the flow¬ 
er buds, by their round and 
obtuse form, as shown by c, 
while the leaf buds are slen¬ 
der and more pointed as ex¬ 
hibited by d. On the low¬ 
er parts of the young shoots. 
m a 
S3 l 
Fig. 56. 
the fruit buds are usually double (e, e,) with a leaf bud 
between. 
The past winter exhibited some curious illustrations 
of the effect of situation and other causes in preserving 
the life of fruit buds. A considerable portion of the 
northern part of Western New-York consists of irregu¬ 
lar hills and valleys, the hills rising from fifty or a hun¬ 
dred feet or more above the ordinary level. In the 
valleys, from their warm sheltered situation, the growth 
of the peach is more rapid ; it does not become so well 
ripened and hardened for winter; warm days more 
quickly start the buds; and the cold air of still, frosty 
nights settling in the hollows, and the radiation to the 
clear sky above being unobstructed by the stillness of 
the air, the destruction of the fruit buds is very fre¬ 
quent. But on hills, these causes do not operate; hence 
in many localities, while the crops fail rarely half the 
time in valleys, they are scarcely ever even diminished 
on the hills. In an orchard belonging to the writer, 
thirty feet above the neighboring creek valley, not one 
in ten of the fruit buds escaped the present year; while 
on another hill only twenty-five or thirty feet higher, 
the trees are full of blossoms. Indeed, the difference in 
temperature, as indicated by a common thermometer, 
between a valley and a hill fifty or a hundred feet above 
it, in favor of the latter, usually amounts to many de¬ 
grees on still clear nights. This difference alone 
would often be sufficient to cause entire failure in one 
case, and preservation in the other. 
On many trees of medium elevation, at the present 
time (early part of 5 mo.) the upper branches only, are 
filled with blossoms, while the lower are entirely des¬ 
titute; the reflected heat from the ground having start¬ 
ed the lower buds and thus rendered them liable to in¬ 
jury from frost. 
Another singular appearance is, that while many 
trees from one foot upwards show no blossoms and are 
perfectly bare, the lower straggling branches which 
happened to be under the snow at the time of the cold, 
are filled with a dense profusion of flowers. Such trees 
exhibit accurately the depth of the snow at the time of 
the injury, and show conclusively when it took place. 
In other cases, snow, by keeping the trees cool in 
warm days, and thus retarding the swelling of the buds, 
may save the crop, though afterwards exposed to cold 
several degrees below zero. 
The morning sun on a frosted plant, by causing sud¬ 
den thawing, is usually destructive to its vitality, when 
gradual thawing would be safe. Hence buildings and 
steep hills on the east side of peach trees, have led to 
the singular and erroneous conclusion that east wind 
does the mischief. Hence also one reason that unfro¬ 
zen rivers and lakes, by the gcreen of fog they throw 
off, afford protection, as well as by softening the severi¬ 
ty of the cold. 
The preceding and other observations, have led to 
the following conclusions : 
1. That tbe difference of several degrees between the 
temperature of sheltered valleys and small hills close 
at hand, shows that the common unqualified statements 
of the temperature by the thermometer, of c rtain parts 
of the country, is too indefinite for dependence. 
2. That in countries abounding in small hills and val¬ 
leys, or consisting of rolling land, the hills are far best 
for peach orchards, soil and other things being equal. 
Unfreezing bodies of water in the neighborhood, of 
course reverse the rule. 
3. That examination of the fruit buds after cold 
weather, if on the lower branches only, may lead to too 
unfavorable conclusions. 
4. That if the buds have been but slightly swollen, a 
few degrees below zero usually causes their destruction. 
THE POTATO. 
To what localities is the potato indigenous? It is 
well established that this esculent was not known 
on the old continent till it was carried there from 
America. The noted navigator Sir Walter Raleigh in- 
troduced it into Ireland and England in 1565. The 
same year it was also taken to England from Santa Fe, by 
Capt. Hawkins. It has been stated that Raleigh obtained 
it in Virginia. But is it now found in a wild state in 
any part of North America? Loudon, in his Hortus 
Brittannicus, gives Peru as the native country of the 
potato, and travellers have asserted that it is found 
not only there, but in Brazil, and some other parts of 
South America. 
We have been led to some reflections on this sub¬ 
ject by a perusal of Schoolcraft’s « Report on the 
Iroquois,” to the Legislature of New-York, 1846. Speak¬ 
ing of the plants cultivated by these tribes, (p. 12, a 13,) 
it is remarked —“ The potato was certainly indigenous. 
Sir Walter Raleigh in efforts at colonization, had 
brought it from Virginia under the original name of 
openawg. But none of the North American tribes are 
known to have cultivated it. They dug it up, like 
other indigenous edible roots, from the forest. But it 
has been long introduced into their villages, and spread 
over the northern latitudes far beyond the present limits 
of the zea maize.” 
If it is a fact that the potato was known to any of the 
Indian tribes which formerly occupied territory now in 
possession of the United States, before the discovery 
and settlement by the whites, how long is it since the 
wild plant became extinct? Or may it not still exist 
in some of its natural uncultivated haunts? 
Feeding Hens. —J. N. Dowd, in the Boston Cul¬ 
tivator, says a bushel of corn will last hens twice as 
long as a bushel of buckwheat, but that he prefers the 
latter, as it makes hens lay eggs more than any other 
grain, and overbalances in profit, its additional cost. 
Carrots for Horses. —J. Frost, of Elliotville, in 
the same papex-, says that caiTOts fed to horses with dry 
food, are worth as much as oats, feeding alternately, 
one day with carrots and one with oats . 
