10 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



foster may become more or less practical; but there are general principles of 

 great importuuce to wliich I invite your attention. 



CLIMATE INFLUENCES PRODUCTFON". 



All wide difTerences of climate result in an equally wide difference of pro- 

 duction?. 



The valleys of the Amazon and of the Mississippi diff^-r widely in climate, 

 and the productions of the one are entirely strange to the other. To the den- 

 izens ot the fiist. the trees, Lhi^* shriil)s, the flowt-rs ot the latter are new. 



From the Hudson to the Sr. Johns ot Florida the change is complete^ 

 Measuring these differences by the vegt-table growths, we may say that; every 

 tree, shrub, and flouer has its clitnatio home. With some the bivadth of that 

 home is great, init with every product there is a place of highest perfction. 

 Every fruit ami vegetalde, as well as every tree, has its true home, and from 

 this pi>int all shade off With moie and more imperfections as we approach the 

 limits of their existence. Thus, the a|)ple is not to be found growing with the 

 orange, nor the orange with the apple. The palm cannot tiourish with the 

 birch, nor the birch Avith the palm. The potato and the plantatn will not 

 thrive together, boine trees and fruits bear a wider range of climate than 

 otherj', but all are at home somewhere, and all are alien to some clime. 



THE POWER OP CLIMATE. 



It is, mainly, the power of climate and not of soil that holds each produc- 

 tion to its own region. We cannot ship a vessel-load of orchard so 1 fiotn the 

 banks of the Hudson to Cuba and ra'Se the Swa ir apple or the Eso|)us Spiiz- 

 enberg. We must l)e content to leave each production to its proper place. 

 And we will do well to remem'ter that all great staples, in their home, are 

 king. We know that cotton is king in the South, wheat is king in Minnesota, 

 sugar in Cuba, (jrang-s in Sicily, grapes iti Poriugal, and tea in China. People 

 ia all countries learn to m ike, by the aid of c nninerce, their own staple prod- 

 ncls their main sources of wealth. So, as the agriculture varies, the sources 

 of wealth differ; there are regions for sugir, for cotton, for coffee, fjr rice, for 

 wheat, c )rn, toiiicco, potatoes: for apples, pears, plums, and gi-apes : for 

 oranges, figs, and bananas; and in the natural home of each staple product it 

 builds up the wealth of the country ; and m r(^gions where such products gain 

 a prominence, there you find the most intt'llig>nce bearing upon their culti- 

 vation and marketing. If yon wished to learn the art of cane-giowing and 

 sugar-making, you would go to Cul)a or Louisiana; you would study orange 

 culture in Sicily or Florida, rice-culiuiv in the Carolmas or China. To post 

 yourself on the produetion of coffee you would visit the countries which pro- 

 duce it successfully. So of the various spiccs, tropical fruits, and the fruits of 

 temperate climes. 



MINOR MODIFICATIONS OF CLIMATE. 



Wherever the important products of the world have a climatic home, there 

 they naturally ami properly bee ime specialties. 



I have referred to . lie greater variations of olimite and production. 



There are lesser differences which sometimes have a great bearing on the 

 value of productions; and some moditie ition.s by soil are. also, imp;)rtant. As 

 the results of scmie of these minor m )difica:i ins of climate we have the Sea 

 Island CO' ton, the sup'rior coffee of Arabia, and the better and higher-priced 

 hops of England and California. 



