416 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



inent, have been trying to subject winds, rains, frosts and snows 

 to " law and order." The success of Lieut. Maury in deter- 

 mining the winds of the ocean, leads to a reasonable hope tliat, 

 as the ships by his science are enabled to avoid the hurricane 

 and the tornado, so the farmer may know the times of the early 

 and the late frosts of spring and autumn, and the sharp killing 

 frosts of winter, and avail himself of all the advantages which 

 such fore-knowledge would give him. Hundreds of observations 

 upon the weather and correlated phenomena are recorded daily 

 in different parts of the country, and these are subjected to the 

 inspection and generalization of some of the best minds. 



That the scarcity of fruit this season is due, in a great degree, 

 to the weather, may appear from the localities where it grew 

 and where it did not grow. So far as our observation extends, 

 the apples of this season were grown upon elevated situations, 

 on land inclined to the south-east. 



The apple has great power to adapt itself to climate. Li 

 Canada, it endures the cold, but the fruit is small, compact and 

 hard, keeping well during the year. In more southern lati- 

 tudes, it grows larger, more tender and luscious. The same 

 variety takes different characters in the same latitudes, as its 

 locality varies from the Atlantic toward the Pacific, on hill or 

 in dale, on the prairie or in the river valley, but extraordi- 

 nary fluctuations in the climate to which it is habituated, spoils 

 the fruit. Peaches were quite abundant on the hills of Barre, 

 and upon the still higher hills of Leyden, Coleraine and Con- 

 way ; but in these towns there were no peaches in the valleys 

 between the hills. It is well known that cold air is more dense 

 than warm. In calm, cold weather, therefore, the valleys will 

 be filled with a stratum of cold aii- — many degrees colder, fre- 

 quently, than that which covers the tops of the hills. And 

 agaili, the heat at mid-day, reflected by the bright snowy hill- 

 sides, is concentrated in the valleys, so that by thawing at mid- 

 day and freezing intensely at night, the tender germ organs, 

 though done up nicely in the bud, are killed in the valleys, 

 while upon the hills, with more uniform temperature, they 

 survive. 



Another fact well worth the attention of the society is, that 

 the best orchards are upon the mica-slate and red sandstone 

 soils. We think trees will grow as well and produce as abun- 



