THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN. 
116 
A NURSERY TEST . 
Effect Upon Young Stock Under Most Trying Conditions — Obser. 
rations by Professor Craig at Ames, la.—Behavior of Apples, 
Plums, Cherries and Grapes During the February Freeze — 
Banking Root-Injured Trees—General Conclusions. 
In a timely paper on the effectsof the freeze of 1898-9 in 
Iowa, read before the American Pomological Society, Prof. 
John Craig, Ames, la., said: 
Apples. —In the region worse affected the destruction to 
one and two-year-old nursery stock was almost complete. 
Varietal differences manifested themselves to some extent in 
this series as noted above. Inherent hardiness, with ability to 
root from scion, depth of planting, were important factors. 
Neglected nurseries fared better than those receiving good 
cultivation. Transplanted nursery trees escaped much better 
than those not transplanted, because set deeper. In one case 
a row of peach trees was saved by the soil thrown up from a 
drain opened late in the autumn. As to stocks, no opportunity 
presented itself during the course of this study for securing a 
comparison of hardiness of stocks, except in one instance, 
where a considerable amount of stock grafting had just been 
done on the Shield and Whitney crab previously noted. Jona¬ 
than Grimes’ .Golden and Willow Twig, as three-year top 
grafts, in nursery, came through in good condition. Prof. N. 
E. Hansen, of South Dakota Agricultural College, reports 
apple trees, root grafted on Pyrus baccata seedlings, entirely 
uninjured, and suggests the use of this stock by nurserymen of 
the Northwest. At present seed is not available. 
Appt.ES in Orchard. —The vigor and age of the individual 
trees affected the final result materially. (1) Trees from 5 to 
15 years old suffered less than those younger or older. (2) 
Trees on north slopes suffered more from root-killing than 
those on south slopes. (3) Apples were injured most on 
sandy soil, least on loam, and to an intermediate degree on 
clay. (4) A standard of hardiness based on ability to with¬ 
stand injury to the branches did not prove reliable in all cases 
when applied to the injury sustained by the roots. For 
instance, Haas, an unusually vigorous and hardy tree was 
generally killed throughout the snowless region. In the col¬ 
lege orchard, where it has been freely used for top grafting 
purposes, the destruction of this variety was almost complete. 
(5) Among varieties least injured are first, the crabs ; second, 
natives, Siberians, and Hibernal type of Russian apples; third, 
varieties of western origin, such as Northwestern and Patten 
Greening; fourth, Wealthy, Duchess, Tetofsky, Willow and 
Scott’s Winter. 
Plums in Nursery. —Plums, native or European, worked on 
peach or Myrobolan, killed ; on Mariana badly injured ; on 
Americana slightly injured, but recovered rapidly. In a few 
instances permanently injured. 
In orchard.—The injury may be scaled in the same manner 
but was less pronounced throughout. Americanas, on peach 
roots escaped where well rooted from the scion. Sand cherry 
(Prunus Besseyi) stocks have been used to some extent in the 
state. In no case have I found these roots injured in the 
slightest degree. In passing I may add that experience has 
not yet developed the ultimate effect of this stock upon the 
scion. Thus far its dwarfing influence upon varieties of the 
Americana type is conclusively demonstrated. Domestica 
plums, on own roots, fared better than the same varieties on 
peach Myrobolan or Mariana. Let me interpolate at this 
point that the experience of our nurserymen has proved the 
unsuitability of Americana stocks for propagating the Domes- 
ticas and Japan varieties by budding. The top outgrows the 
stock. When root grafted the scion soon becomes an own 
rooted tree ; but the first year’s growth in nursery is unsatis¬ 
factory. 
In orchard the results of the freeze, as bearing upon the 
kind of stock used, approximated quite closely those outlined 
above. As to varieties, Americanas suffered slightly, augusti 
folias considerably, domesticas badly, Japanese severely, Japan 
on Sand cherry came through without injury. 
Cherries in Nursery. —The two almost universally used 
cherry stocks are Mazzard and Mahaleb. The former was 
practically a total loss in the case of two-year-olds, and a 
complete loss of one-year-olds. Morello stock and own rooted 
Morello trees generally escaped with slight injury, except in 
exposed situations. In orchard the results were substantially 
the same, though the desirability of deep planting received 
emphatic commendation by the escape from root injury of 
several young Richmond orchards set unusually deep (e. g. 
those set in a dead furrow; dwarf pears on cultivated ground 
and in mulched strawberry patch). In the college nurseries 
the practice of root grafting the cherry received commenda¬ 
tion by the fact that the only trees which escaped were those 
which were partly on their own roots. (Bird cherry stocks?) 
Banking. —The effect of banking or hilling up root-injured 
nursery trees was tried. The banking was done by turning 
the wings of the cultivator so that they would throw the soil 
against the row. The object in view was to encourage the 
rooting of the stock from the live wood at the surface of the 
ground. Practically no beneficial results were obtained in the 
case of apples or plums. 
With the grapes, however, 80 per cent, of the varieties in 
the college vineyard were saved by cutting them back severely 
and hilling them deeply. They have rooted near the surface 
of the ground and have made a top growth from to 3 feet, 
but, of course, will need thorough protection for two or three 
seasons, until the roots penetrate to their normal depths. 
General Conclusions. —A careful canvass of the whole 
field, with the assistance of the leading fruit growers of the 
state, leads to the following conclusions : 
(1) That the lack of a protecting blanket of snow coupled 
with unusually low temperatures was the chief cause of the 
gneat loss of nursery stock and orchard trees. 
(2) That inasmuch as trees on north slopes suffered more 
than trees on south aspects, and in proportion to the surface 
protection present, the intensity of frost bore a definite rela¬ 
tion to the amount of injury inflicted. 
(3) That conclusive data are waiting to show that more in¬ 
jury resulted on untilled orchard lands than on those supplied 
with tile drains. 
(4) That orchard and nursery trees suffered most on ex¬ 
posed dry knolls with northern aspects than elsewhere. 
(5) That the character of winter surface cover, in other 
words, desirable cover crops, is a question of paramount im¬ 
portance in Northern Mississippi valley states. 
(6) 1 hat the matter of congenial and hardy stocks for 
plums, apples and cherries is a subject worthy the earnest at¬ 
tention of experiment station workers and nurserymen in the 
Northwest. 
