396 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



fruit trees in a given location, and hence may be made the sole test (so far as 

 this question is concerned,) of the eligibility or desirableness of a situation for 

 this purpose; there are circumstances quite foreign to these, which, in a 

 different state of affairs, become even paramount to them. 



By a well known law governing the motions of fluids, air as it becomes cooled 

 by radiation, during a still cold night, settles slowly and almost imperceptibly 

 into the lowest places, and hence it is not a very uncommon circumstance that, 

 along the slopes of a valley, the line of division between the cold and the warm 

 air is so well defined that the trees and even the branches below such line will 

 be found bare of fruit, while those above it are bearing a full crop. In level, or 

 even comparatively level regions, this rule has, of course, but a limited applica- 

 tion, while in more hilly, and especially in very hilly or mountainous regions, 

 it becomes the dominant consideration, in the choice of a locality for orchard 

 planting. The movements of the cold air, in such cases, are obedient to the 

 general laws that control the motions of water under similar circumstances; 

 and hence it will find an outfall down the slopes and valleys or ravines, which 

 supply the general drainage of the country. This law has also been found to 

 apply in its fullest force, in the choice of localities in which to evade the 

 severity of the winters, which sometimes so severely try the hardiness of our 

 orchards, and hence in such localities as that about Grand Traverse Bay, as 

 well as the rolling or "knobby" lands occasionally occurring in the interior of 

 the State, where the surface is much broken by valleys or ravines, the question 

 •of "atmospheric drainage" becomes of primary importance in the selection of 

 a locality for a fruit plantation ; while it also becomes essential to secure a loca- 

 tion high and abrupt enough to provide a ready escape of the cold air, and also 

 abundant space below to receive it and admit of its diffusion. 



It is a common statement that our prevailing winds are from the southwest, 

 and this is doubtless true of them as a whole. We doubt not, however, that 

 when we consider only the easterly half the lower peninsula, and that simply 

 for the period for March 1st to June 1st, we shall find a prevalence of easterly 

 and northeasterly winds, and that, from these, that portion of the State derives 

 quite as efficient a protection from spring frosts as does the westerly half from 

 Lake Michigan ; hence, for the hardy fruits, represented by the apple, which 

 •may, to a certain extent, be grown in disregard of the occasional "arctic waves" 

 of cold which visit our peninsula, this region has long enjoyed a high reputa- 

 tion. 



Precisely how, and to what extent, these lake influences operate to 

 modify our climate, — whether by actual increase of rainfall, or by its more 

 favorable distribution through the season, or merely by their influence upon 

 the general condition of the atmosphere, as to warmth or moisture, or by a 

 combination of a part or all of them, may very naturally be regarded as con- 

 trovertible points. Yet the fact remains that such influence does exist, and 

 that it is very potent in its character, and co-extensive with the sweep of the 

 prevalent winds passing over these lakes. 



As proof of the correctness of these assumptions, we shall find a broad belt 

 of timbered lands extending along the entire westerly shore of the easterly 

 lakes and their connecting straits; fringed, as we approach the central portions 

 of the State, with "oak openings," especially toAvard the south. 



If, now, we draw a line from near the southeasterly margin of Lake Michi- 

 gan, across the State, as nearly as practicable in the direction of the prevail- 

 ing southwesterly winds, till we come within reach of the climatic influences 



