The Colorado Experiment Station. 
gone se\ ei e winters, it is often possible to find the sap wood < 
coiored, geneially due to freezing and in some cases traceable 1 
the annual rings to the year of the injury. 
WINTER IN JURY OE THE OLD TREES. 
One foim of freezing found on the old, and sometimes you 
apple trees, is due to “freezing dry.” This is thought to'resI 
fi om pei haps two causes, one being lack of moisture in the s<; 
and the other a deeply frozen condition, stopping all root acti ’ 
Transpiration, 01 the loss of water from the limbs and twigs t 
the tree, goes on in winter as well as in sunimei. Whenever eitb 
or both of the conditions mentioned above exist for any length \ 
time, the lesults aie detrimental to the tree and, if severe etiou: 
may cause death. For this reason it is necessary to irrigate in U 
fall or early winter. As a rule, the first of November is a desira: 
time to do this, as it very seldom happens that the soil around i: 
roots freezes enough to do any damage unless the trees are shall; 
rooted. In this case root freezing might prove to be detriment. 
The above statements will hold tor the peach as well as for 1; 
apple. 
There is another form of winter injury to old apple trees tit 
is often found and which, in some cases, is hard to distinguish fro 
m jm ies due to arsenical poisoning. The distinguishing featuu 
are that the injury for the most part is at the crown or ground lb 
primarily and seldom runs down into the root system. The roo. 
of. course, may be affected from this injury, but in such cases t; 
injury, would be secondary. Ihe injury takes place in the form t 
2 ^partial or complete girdling at the ground line. The bark pen 
off m rough pieces and generally in one spot only. It may exte i 
up to the trunk of the tree for several inches. It depends upon V. 
size of this affected spot whether the injury will prove fatal to ti 
ti ee oi not. In cases of arsenical poisoning the bark becomes cc - 
roded to a mealy mass in which the tissues are broken down aii 
may be sciaped off from the wood, while with winter injury t; 
bark remains intact and separates at the cambium. The writer hi 
seen cases where fifteen year old Ben Davis trees w^ere killed I 
this crown line injury. Attempts wwre made to save the trees f 
bridge grafting, but as stated before, the scions that had to be us«l 
were too long, and dried out before adhesion could take plac 
These trees were in such a position that undoubtedlv more or le; 
ice and snow remained around the bases of them for long periou 
of time. Although in some cases it would appear that ice aroui 
the base of a tree had no detrimental effect, it is not well to alio 
this, as one can never tell when the conditions are just right f< 
damage to be done. In the fall irrigation it is well to keep tl 
