The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-23
A BETTER OUTLOOK:
MAT HAVE SOME PEACHES AF-
 TER ALL

J. H. Hale Says That some of His Trees
 wni Bear This Year-Rsports From
 Other Growers is More Encouraging. J. H. Hale, Connecticuts famous peach grower, has had a chance during the recent thaw, to take a second look at his peach orachards in this state, and also to hear from other peach growers, with the result that he now announces that the outlook for peaches this year is not as dark as it was paint ed few weeks ago. He says that ex- amination shows that at elevations of fifty to one hundred and fifty feet above the river, not only are the peach buds killed, but thousands of trees are Killed to the snow line. The few trees that are not killed outright will all have to be cut away in hopes that there is enough vitality left in the bodies to slowly build up new head in one or two years.
 At the levels of two hundred to three hundred feet, while no live buds can be found, trees are only slightly injured. so that good sharp pruning VIII ena- ble them to put on new heads in one season. At elevations of four hundred feet and over, trees are ns injured in the least and there are enough live fruit buds for a full crop of fruit on one or chard of twenty-five acres. So that while his loss on trees and fruit cannot be less than twenty-five thousand dol lars, he will not be entirely without fruit.
 His brother with adjoining orchards at somewhat lower levels than the av- craze of his own, reports trees are dead to snow line on forty acres of orchard trees, while an eight-acre orchard on hill top four hundred and seventy feet elevation, has enough live fruit buds for full crop of the Elberta variety PLUMS AND OTHER FRUITS. l Japanese plums suffered much less than peaches, and in one orchard where a registering thernometer showed |thirty-eight below zero, there are a plenty of live buds left for crop on both Burbank and Abundance varieties. Temperatures about town, at the cold S est time, ranged all the way from twerl- Ity-eight to forty-four degrees below zero, and besides fruit trees and buds Injured, many ornamental plants, shrubs and vines are badly hurt if not lentirely killed, and no doubt there will heed to be- a lot of very close pruning in the spring. I At his orchard of one hum dre6<4 4afoiff; E; lon the hills just west of Seymour, mel- lcury went to only eight degrees below zero, while 1t was thirty-three degrees below near the railroad station In the valley below. Fruit buds in this or chard are ninety per cent. alive and at present every prospect of a great crop. REPORTS FROM ELSEWHERE.
 Reports from all over Connecticut, Hudson river region of New York; and from Massachusetts and Rhode Island, show orchard temperature during the great freeze of January and to have lranged all the way from five to forty degrees below zero; the majority reports ling twenty to twenty-eight below. And as majority of the peach orchards are lon hillsides or hilltops, a large number lof g rowers are reporting all the way from ten to fifty per cent. of live buds: enough for full crop. Others report fruit buds all dead, and still others, trees all dead, young trees having st if lfered worse than old ones.
 George T. Powell, of Ghert, N. Y., ljust east of the city of Hudson, repor peach buds all dead, while A. A. Mar- Shall, at Fitchburg, Mass, reports ! majority alive. Reports from Branford, lConn., say buds all dead, while Wal llingford and Southington have pleslty left for crop.
 DEPENDS ON THE BUDS S Years ago old peach growers used td lsay that twelve to fifteen degrees below zero would kill all peach buds, but MT. Hale says he has learned from long ex- lperience that sometimes they will stand much more than that without injury, while at other times only a little below zero has killed then
 He lost every bud one year with the temperature at five degrees below, and another season had full crop after k had been eighteen degrees below. and lnow with the promise of partial crop lafter thirty to forty degrees below, i1 would not be surprising, he says, i1 Alaska finally developed into good lpeach growing country, though of Icourse he adds, it is not one year in twenty that fruit buds go into winter Iquarters in as fine shape as they did