In this region we raise Peaches about two years in five; the rest of the time our buds are killed by the extreme cold in the winter. In the year 1827 I became convinced that the common opinion was incorrect. that the fruit-buds were killed in the spring by having cold weather after some warm days had swelled the buds. The first snow that winter fell the 1st of January, nearly one and half feet, and ended with a gale from the nothwest which drifted the snow very much. During the winter we had a snow-storm almost every week, and then a drift; so that by mid-winter the fences were covered. My father had a small nursery of Peach trees which were seven or eight feet high and branched within two feet of the ground. These were covered five or six feet with snow till March. An uncle of mine, in this city, had some bearing Peach trees that branched within three feet of the ground, so that some of the branches were covered with snow all winter. In the spring the tops of all these trees that were exposed were killed; and below the snow, sound blossom-buds and wood, so that both nursery and other trees bore fruit 1 did not keep a thermometer then, so that I cannot tell how cold it was; but the newspapers said it was many degrees below zero.

In the fall of 1829 I began to keep a record of the thermometer three times a day, and found thai when it was 10 ° or more below zero our Peach fruit-buds were killed. If the thermometer was only three or four below zero, early in December, it caused more injury than five or six, degrees lower would in January or February. I also found that sudden thawing was a great evil. As a general rule, the mornings after our coldest nights are clear, with a bright sun, till about ten o'clock, when it clouds over for the rest of the day. I observed that trees which were protected by some building from the morning sun, till after ten o'clock, saved some fruit-buds even in our coldest winters, when on exposed trees all were killed. I saw an example of this four or five years ago at the Shaker village nine miles east of us. One of the families had a fine Peach orchard loaded with fruit in August, and was situated on the west side of a knoll that protected it from the morning sua. Our buds about the city had been killed the previous winter.

In the fall, some eight or nine years ago, I tied a bundle of straw around an Apricot tree and a Nectarine that had born one or two seasons, in the same way you protect Rose bushes and other tender things. They were seven or eight feet high. In the spring, when uncovered, they were sound in wood and bud and bore fruit, while older Peach trees in the same garden, which had been exposed all winter, bore no fruit, the buds having been killed.

As To The Protection Of Snow

A few years ago, in November, I shortened the young wood of my Peach trees and left the trimmings under the trees, In the winter, when the ground was covered with three or four inches of snow, we had the thermometer low enough below zero to kill the Peach buds. A few days after the snow melted away, and on examining the fruit-buds on the trimmings that had been covered by snow, I found them all sound. Several years ago a Scotchman told that his brother, who was gardener to Mr. Burden, of Troy, one fall laid down some young Peach trees, that were ready to bear, by cutting off the roots on one side so that be could bend them to the ground; he then covered them with some Pine boughs, and in the winter they were covered with. snow. In the spring he righted them up, and they blossomed and bore fruit, while other Peach trees near them, which had been exposed, bore none.

Since I have kept a record our Plum-buds have been killed twice, and the Cherry once. About four miles below this city there is a rapid, of a mile or more, in the Mohawk, which does not freeze once in twenty years. The banks are a hundred feet or more above the river. A friend, who lives there, raises more or less Peaches every year, as the warmth given out from the river makes it ten degrees warmer than with us in the city. East of us the ground rises gradually for three miles and then descends towards Troy. On that ridge they raise Peaches almost every year. A farmer who lives there told me, lately, that he has a tree that has borne every year for the last twenty years, and last year bore two bushels. Some of its fruit-buds have survived the past winter.

The fall of 1885 was very mild, and, before the ground was frozen, eight inches of snow fell on the 28d of November; immediately the winter set in, and on the 3d of December the thermometer was four degrees below zero; on the 16th, fourteen below in the morning; ten below in the middle of the day, and fifteen below at nine in the evening. The 9th of January, 1886, more than two feet of snow fell; on the 25th, two and a half feet During the month the thermometer was six times below zero - three times, fifteen below. In February it was nine times below zero -the lowest, eighteen and nineteen. A great deal of snow fell, so that it was five or six feet on a level. In March it was four times below - the lowest, five, on the 9th. The ground being deeply covered with snow, and no frost in it, the trees were not prepared for the severe cold, and our Peach trees were killed. Three out of five Quince trees in our garden were killed; the other two were killed to the ground, but sprouted again and have borne fruit to this time.

As to the past winter, the thermometer was two below zero the 19th of December; twelve below, the 20th; at zero, the 21st; five below, the 22d; and ten below, the 28d. In the outskirts of the city, it was three or four degrees lower. I examined the trees a few days after and found the Peach fruit-buds all killed, and two-thirds of the Apricots. The few Apricot buds that escaped are swelled out and beginning to open. Their impunity is owing to their being protected by buildings from the morning sun; they are young, being only five feet high. The wood of our Peach and Apricot trees is sound to the very ends of the branches. Our Plum buds are safe; so are the Cherries, except a few on the Elton. The 5th of February the thermometer was two below zero; on the 6th, twelve below; on the 17th, seventeen below - at College Hill, twenty-two below. The past winter the ground was frozen from three to four feet. My friend, who lives near the rapid spoken of before, has just told me that his Peach buds are nearly all alive. Our Pear trees are safe.

Charles H. Tomlinson. - Schenectady, N. Y