Conference challenge

摘要

From a train speeding across the Belgian countryside, the bright green orchards and hillsides flashing by belie the damage of a prolonged cold April frost. Fruit trees in many pockets of Europe were in full bloom when temperatures dropped as low as minus 6 degrees Celsius (21 degrees Fahrenheit). In Belgium alone, growers estimated losses to upwards of three-fourths of the apple and cherry crops.Pear trees there suffered, too, though not nearly as badly, and there's a reason: A well-known variety that Belgian growers raced to plant on dwarfing rootstocks withstood the freeze.