162 ANNUAL REPORT OT NEW- YORK 



The success with which Indian corn, a plant closely related 

 to the sugar cane, is cultivated, should not be cited against the 

 position that the sugar growing region of the United States of 

 America is too cold for its most profitable culture : for, firstj 

 Indian corn is adapted to a less degree of heat than the sugar 

 cane. Secondly^ even it is injured temporarily by a cold season. 

 Thirdly^ it is always cultivated as a seedling, and so gradually 

 accommodates itself to the length of the season where it is per- 

 manently cultivated. Thus grown, moreover, it retrieves the 

 injuries of one year by the healthier growth of the next, while 

 in the cases of such perennials as the sugar cane, grape and 

 potato, the injury accumulates from year to year. 



There is no more reason why a perennial plant, suffering cli- 

 matic injuries from year to year, should recover from them 

 perfectly, than that animals should perfectly surmount the 

 effects of repeated attacks of disease, or the effects of constant 

 climatic pressure. The assertion of the contrary doctrine would 

 be that of a virtual immortality, (accidents apart) of both plants 

 and animals. Indeed, how often do we see a plant sink, in one 

 season, under repeated attacks of hard chills, heavy rains, and 

 light frosts 1 



a. The climate of the sugar growing States is too irregular for 

 the best health of the sugar cane. 



1. Such fitfulness is the striking characteristic of the climate 

 of a large portion of the United States of America. The ration- 

 ale of its influence on tender plants, was previously described, 

 in treating of the grape. There is this difference, however, 

 between the grape and the sugar cane. The former suffers 

 almost equally from hot damps and cold chills, while the latter, 

 in common with most tropicals, suffers almost exclusively from 

 the latter. See the illustration of inconstant weather on the 

 cucumber, melon, squash, egg plant, potato, pumpkin, pepper, 

 beans, corn, tomatoes, &c., in the Transactions of the New- York 

 State Agricultural Society, for 1847, p. 442-444; and 1848, p. 

 412-414, 



2. The theory of acclimation, often introduced at this point of 

 the discussion, is one of the imagination only, and is never veri- 



