180 ANNUAL REPORT OF NEW-YORK 



l). 284,) might it not find summer's heat enough as far north as 

 perhaps lat. 37^, (which is the northern limit of North Carolina, 

 Tennessee, and Arkansas,) instead of, as now, being confined by a 

 northern limit of 32 J*^. The last line is at present its utmost 

 northern limit, with the exception of the immediate valley of the 

 Mississippi, where its culture extends to 35*^. (See Patent Office 

 report, 1853, p. 361.) At the point suggested, 37^ north, it 

 might probably find, in central summer, nearly as high a heat as 

 in Louisiana, and with a shorter summer's growth, it might, 

 though making less weight of cane, produce that which would be 

 equally available for the purpose of sugar. 



e It would be a singular fact in vegetable physiology, if no 

 ready and certain mode of the reproduction of sugar cane from 

 the seed could be discovered. This idea should not be seriously 

 entertained. The solution of this question might well, if need- 

 ful, invite the attention of the general government, or of some 

 of the State governments. 



/. The labor not only of obtaining real seed, but of drawing 

 from it varieties at once hardy and otherwise available, may 

 involve both time and patience; but I think there could be no 

 doubt of a favorable result. My experience in the culture of 

 seedling potatoes affords an analogical argument demonstrative in 

 its bearing. In those experiments success resulted from one 

 reproduction where the variety producing the seed-balls was 

 suited, in season of maturity, to our climate. In the case of 

 varieties imported from South America, and requiring a much 

 longer season for maturity than was afforded here, a second and 

 even a third successive reproduction was needful. In every case 

 of patient continuance, eventually, valuable new varieties were 

 obtained; that is, such as were suited, in time of maturity, color 

 of flesh, shape, &c., to the w^ants of our country. From the dis- 

 position of the potato, like the apple, to sport into varieties, such 

 valuable new sorts were comparatively few. 



g. My experience in the importation of foreign varieties of 

 potatoes, is also pertinent to this subject. Here, a variety import- 

 ed from Bogota, failed entirely in five or six years. Bogota is 

 situated just north of the equator, where vegetation never ceases, 

 and yet at so great an elevation as to present a climate too cool 

 for the best culture of the melon and the tomato. The other 



