istration, Bureau of Plant Industry, Soils, and
Agricultural Engineering, Oregon State College, Corvallis, Oregon

In western Oregon and Washington, where the Japan Current is supposed to
keep the winter temperatures moderate, something happens every now and
then and we get really severe winters. We can't blame it on the "A" bomb
because we had severe winter injury in 1919 and 1935 long before the "A"
bomb.

The last two winters have been exceptionally cold, but this past winter
of 1949-1950 was much more severe than the previous one.

In 1948-1949, the cold came rather suddenly in the latter part of
December. In the past winter, 1949-1950, the real cold came on January
30, with temperatures ranging from 10 to 30 degrees below zero F. Most
official temperatures were higher; but at Corvallis the official
temperatures were taken at least 60 feet above the ground level, on the
roof of the Agricultural Building, which is over a steam-heated building
and is old enough to be not very well insulated. This cold continued in
somewhat modified form for a week.

During the previous winter the lowest temperature recorded in the nut
growing areas was about 10 to 11 degrees above zero F., and the severe
cold lasted for only a couple of days.

In both winters the ground was fairly well covered with snow, but with
considerably more snow this past winter than the previous winter.

No apparent damage to Persian walnuts was observed as a result of the
cold in the 1948-1949 winter, but in certain low-lying areas catkins of
Barcelona and Daviana filberts were killed, especially those of the
latter. Considerable dieback of filberts occurred; but during the
following growing season recovery was effected and at the end of the
summer very little evidence of winter injury was visible.

The injury resulting from the cold weather of the past winter was much
more severe than that of the previous winter. Whereas filberts were the
only nut trees injured in 1948-1949, they escaped with relatively little
damage in 1949-1950 in comparison with Persian walnuts.

On February 11, 1950, ten days after the really severe week, several
walnut growers of long experience held grave fears for the entire
industry. Peach and apple trees, which seem to exhibit winter injury
more quickly than walnuts, showed so much damage then that walnut
growers thought the injury to the Persian walnut would be even worse.

From February 11, 1950, to the present date (Ju