Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1872-06-06
Helena, Montana, Thursday, June 6, 1917.
Evergreens Destreyed--Lnst winters
WORK. widespread Disaster--Mil.
lions 0f mMllRra Inst.

EvergreenS Destroy ed--Lmst winters
Ss. SMs"rk~A - AWnde-sPread Disaster-Mil-
from the New York journal of Commerce, May adl
From Virginia to the Canadian shores, and
from the eastern slope of the Rocky Noun
tans to the Atlantic. the evergreens are dead
or dying. Millions of dollars worth of hardy
plants, that have for years withstood our
northern winters, now show the ravages of
the zero weather of the last season. Norway
spruce, pines, arbor vitae, jumpers, rododen-
drons, dwarf and standard roses in public
parks and private gardens have ''put ON the
sere and yellow leaf, their symbols of decay.
Long Island has suffered severely. In the
gardens at Astoria where immense numbers
of evergreens were growing for sale, the loss
is estimated at hundreds of thousands of dol
lars. Rows of arbor vitae, containing thou
sands of plants, are actually valueless. Pros
pcct Park and the private gardens in Brook
lyn have not been SPARED in the general dis
aster, and the gardeners at the Central Park,
New York. pronounce the loss in those
grounds almost irreparable. AT Flat Bush,
Long Island, and in Westchester county the
loss has been great. Some of the nurserymen
have lost their entire stock. In other places
the effect has been peculiar. Plants of the
same age and apparent health, growing in
long rows, have been touched at intervals of
few feet. The first dozen in the row are
dead, and the next half dozen are well and
thrifty. In Brooklyn the plants on the north
and east side of the houses have suffered
most. ~ @.Ast a @ .la5
In New Jersey the horticulturists have no.
ticed that plants which were shaded from the
winter sun have escaped the worst effects of
the season, and may be saved with much
trouble and time. rs.sE#s 17tsa
The reports from the vicinity of Boston
and further east confirm the sad tidings of
what was only rumor few weeks ago, and
from the great nurseries at Rochester, the
Ohio valley, and even further west, the words
come to us, ''our evergreens are dead. The
causes assigned for this unexpected loss are
various, but from among them the following
may be taken as having in them the most of
probability:
1t is said that the warm days of February
gave the plants an early start as if the spring
had really opened, and then, when all were
swelling with the new life, the weather
changed again to hard winter, freezing with
the cold March winds. s*lo.
Another view is that the plants were killed
very early in the winter. There was not a
gradual diminution of the temperature as in
former years, but the season came suddenly
upon the plants before they were properly
shielded or prepared for it. Their color
changed, but not enough to cause alarm, and
although the plants Iemained green they were
dead Only when the warm weather of the
last few weeks started the other plants into
general activity was the damage to the ever
greens visible. aa tr.s
In support of the first theory it is observed
that in one place on the Hudson, a private
garden, there were several fine specimens of
the golden-bark arbor vitae. They had been
covered nearly all of the winter. During the
warm days of February they were exposed,
and seemed remarkably vigorous. They have
not been covered since and are now dead.
Where the new supply will come from is
as yet matter of conjecture. Nurserymen
are afraid to purchase the few plants offered
for sale until the season is more advanced.
Many think they could save some of their
stock by carefully nursing it for two or three
years; but the ground is too valuable to be
used for that purpose, and the evergreens win
be cut down and cast away There are many
sorrowful faces among the nurserymen, and
some of them will be sorely tried in the effort
to recover from the losses inflicted by the
death of the evergreens. t1.f5 @aa