216 REPORT OF THE BOTANICAL DEPARTMENT OF THE 
Difference in variety was unusually subordinate to location, 
age and previous health of the trees, though in many cases there 
was plainly a difference in the susceptibility of varieties. 
Experiments indicated that, when peach trees were less than 
five vears old, a severe pruning or cutting back to large limbs 
was a successful method of treating injured trees. The same 
treatment for older trees was a failure. Trees that did not carry 
any fruit made a better recovery than those that carried even a 
light crop. 
INTRODUCTION. 
The winter of 1903 and 1904 was an unusually severe one 
throughout New York State. In many places the temperature 
was the lowest on record, and the periods of extreme cold were 
protracted. As a result the end of the winter found many 
of the orchards, especially those of peaches and pears, exten- 
sively and seriously injured. Orchardists were anxious for infor-, 
mation that would:enable them to distinguish between trees 
fatally injured and those in which recovery was probable, and 
also desired to know what methods of treatment would be most 
likely to bring about a speedy recovery. . 
Reliable information upon these points was very meagre and 
such as was available did not well apply to the conditions as 
found in New York State. For these reasons and also because 
the opportunity was a good one it was deemed advisable to make 
some observations and experiments with injured trees with the 
hope of learning more about the subject, and to place on record 
facts that it is believed will be of some value should a similar 
disaster cccur in the future. 
Before a consideration of the injuries of the winter it will be 
necessary to review some of the unusual climatic conditions and 
insect and fungus epidemics of the growing season of 1903. 
The climatic conditions were of the two extremes—the drought 
during the spring and the excessive rains of the fall—especially 
in the Hudson Valley. For a continuous period from “April 16 
until June 10, a most severe drought occurred, during which 
there was no rain sufficient to benefit growing crops.’’ Coming 
during these months the tax upon the vitality of all trees was 
* New York Section of the Climate and Crop Service of the Weather Bureau. 
Annual Summary 1903, p. 5. 
