410 REPORT OF THE HoRTICULTURAL DEPARTMENT OF THE 
THE RELATION OF WEATHER TO THE 5SET- 
TING OF FRUIT; WITH BLOOMING 
DATA FOR 866 VARIETIFS 
ODVERUIE 
U. P. HEDRICK. 
SUMMARY. 
1. The relations of weather to the formation and development 
of fruit seem to have been lost sight of in the current discussions 
of the failures of blossoms to set fruit. 
2. In New York, unfavorable weather is probably the predomi- 
nating one of the several factors which cause the loss of fruit 
crops during blooming time. | 
3. Late frosts ruined the fruit crop in western New York in 
1889, 1890, 1895, and 1902. The fruit crops of 1884, 1888, 1891, 
1893, and 1903 were seriously damaged by killing frosts. Besides 
the above years, pears, peaches and plums were more or less in- 
jured by frosts in 1892, 1896, and 1900. Fruits were injured at 
blossoming time by frosts in thirteen years out of the twenty-five 
under consideration. . 
The average date at which the last killing frost is likely to occur 
in any locality, as a normal event, must often determine the limit 
in latitude or altitude at which a fruit can be grown. Even in the 
most favored fruit regions of the state the records bring out the 
fact that killing frosts must be expected, occasionally, to destroy the 
fruit crop wholly or in part. 
4. Wet weather almost wholly prevented the setting of fruit in 
New York in the years 1881, 1882, 1883, 1886, 1890, 1892 and 
1901. Rain is mentioned as one of the causes of a poor setting 
of fruit in the years 1888, 1889, 1891, 1893, 1894, 1898, 1905. 
Of the seasons given above, moisture came at blossoming time in 
the form of snow in 1899 and in 1891. Gales of wind accom- 
panied the rain in 1881, 1882, 1883, and 1905. The rainfall came 
in periods of prolonged cold weather in the years 1881, 1882, 
* A reprint of Bulletin No. 299. 
