418 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



considered, but slight so far as westerly winds are concerned ; and it is certainly 

 true that our prevailing winds arc from that direction. But on the other hand, 

 our easterly wind«, although less common, come to us with added impetus; 

 and with fewer forests in our rear, reach us with a lower temperature than 

 formerly, bringing to us, as the present spring has Ibrcibly and I'eelingly dem- 

 onstrated, lower degrees of temperature and more destructive Irosts than have 

 been hert'toiore known, a process, which, to our apprehension, is almost certain 

 to become still more effective, as the removal of timber in the opening of farms 

 progresses. It can be of comparatively slight advantage to the " Peach Belt," 

 that the equalizing influences of our prevailing lake breezes protect us in the 

 effort to grow liie more delicate fruits, so long as each passing year is increas- 

 ing their liability to destruction, by chilling blasts from over the denuded 

 lands in our rear. 



The influence of forest shelter for the more delicate fruits must, in the very 

 nature of the case, become less and less effective as we go northward ; and for 

 the same reason, the lake protection must be supposed, other circumstances 

 being t^qual, to become restricted to a narrower limit. These conclusions must, 

 so far as we are able to discern, apply with their full force to the growing of all 

 the larger fruits, limited, possibly in the case of the apple, and possibly also of 

 the pear, by the consideration that the greater hardiness of their fruit buds, 

 and their later season of bloom, limits the question in some sense to the con- 

 sideration of the sutlicient hardiness of the trees. 



The peculiarities of our more northern climate offer an added encouragement 

 for the growing of these last named fruits, in that region, in the very import- 

 ant fact that those long-keeping varieties rarely become over-mature, in autumn, 

 and hence go into the market later and in better condition than is usually the 

 case with even the same varieties grown further south. 



With these small fruits generally, the northern half of the lower peninsula, 

 and (so far as can be inferred I'rom the natural or indigenous growths of the 

 country) the entire upper peninsula possess peculiarities of clinuite which 

 peculiarly adapt tht m to their growth and profitable fruiting, so soon as the 

 requisite markets shall have been developed, or facilities supplied for conven- 

 iently reaching those already in existence. 



The following are some of the advantages offered: So far as the plants are 

 concerned, winter so treads upon the heels of summer, that even the most ten- 

 der European raspberries (Rubus Ida^us) l)ecome covered with snow before the 

 occurrence of temperatures at all dangerous to the plant ; while the persistence 

 of the snow curries such protection nearly or quite through, till all danger from 

 cold in the spring is fully past. That such covering must be equally effective 

 for raspberries of all varieties, vs well as lor blackberries, currants, gooseberries, 

 and grapes, hardly need be remarked. It will be readily perceived that the 

 advantnge of late ripening will apply to the small fruits with quite as much 

 force as in the case of the larger ones. 



FREE TRADE IN HORTICULTURAL PRODUCTS. 



BY C. W. G. 



The tariff commission has been swinging around the circle taking testimony 

 from representatives of all classes of business affected by the present tariff laws ; 

 but judging from reports which come to us through the press the testimony is 



