The Adaptation of Fruits to Climate and Soil. 253 



native forests. Certain varieties grow and thrive best in low, moist grounds 

 of the river bottoms. Other varieties are found only on the dryer soils of 

 the uplands, and these all have been thus growing for an hundred years or 

 more and seem good for as many years to come." 



The growth of these trees from the first has been in harmony withnatui'e's 

 plan; first, in the selection of the soil; second, in the culture. Their first 

 years of slow progress saved only the fittest, and mulch their only culture- 

 They knew no scorching suns nor wasting droughts, and in the lapse of years 

 have become the giants of the forest. 



This lesson of adaptation we may learn in the natural growths of every re- 

 gion of our country, nor can the growing of fruit trees form an exception to 

 the law of natural conditions of success. 



Following the severe winter of 1855-6 I made extensive observations in our 

 State, and became fully satisfied that the injuries we had experienced were 

 traceable to certain natural causes and conditions which could be avoided by 

 a more careful selection of hardier varieties, and by planting in soils and lo- 

 cations which would produce the highest conditions of hardiness or self- 

 resistance to the extremes of climate. I found that certain soils and aspects 

 would produce a heavy, hard wood, which would ripen as fast as made, while 

 in other soils and aspects the same variety would be soft and immature at 

 the advent of winter. Hence, in my earlier writings on this subject, I made 

 prominent the necessity of planting the orchard upon firm, dry soils, com- 

 paratively elevated, and with a cool, open exposure ; because I found, inva- 

 riabh', the best conditions of a tree of any given variety in such locations. 

 Subsequent observations confirmed this view, and they have been extended to 

 nearly every county in our State, and the rules then given are found even 

 more applicable in the central and northern regions; for as the cold increases 

 with the higher latitude and with the more variable soils of the North, the 

 necessity of greater hardiness is more apparent. 



But I found other natural conditions coming in as factors in this problem 

 •of fruit growing ; such as the constituent elements of the soil and subsoil 

 and amount of water it contained at different periods of the year ; also, the 

 atmospheric temperature and degree of saturation as modified by large 

 bodies of water. This led me to a careful study of the superficial geology 

 and topography of our State, where I found a rich field of investigation and 

 the foundation for a most hopeful system of practice in tree growing. Much 

 that before was uncertain now became clear and certain in theory and prac- 

 tice, and I came to believe that the adaptation of a variety need not necessa- 

 rily be subject to the results of long years of trial in each given locality, and 

 to confidently claim that where the natural conditions of soil and subsoil, 

 elevation and aspect of any location are given, it is within the province of 

 scientific horticulture to as clearly give the varieties and treatment best for 

 that locality, or to say if those natural conditions render success doubtful 

 without extraordinary expense in preparation for the success of the tree. 



The principles upon which adaptation rests may be classed : 



