DECEMBER MEETING. 307 



surprised to fiiul apples, pears, ])eaclics, plums, apricots, nectarines, ciierries, 

 quinces, mulberries, and ii^'rapes, all a;rowin^- luxuriantly and ]:)earing heavy crops 

 of fruit wiLliout manure and with very iudiil'crcnt culture, and they are equally 

 surprised when they find the size, beauty, and quality of these various fruits 

 equal and in some respects superior to the same fruits grown further south. 

 They forget that latitude is not a true index to the temperature of a climate; 

 that the isothermal lines, in passing around the world, go up and down through 

 many degrees of latitude ; that the elevation of the land in proximity to large 

 bodies of water, the direction of the prevailing winds, and the quality of the 

 soil, all exert an influence upon climate, independent of mere latitude. It is 

 for the purpose of correcting the false impressions wdiich prevail to so large an 

 extent concerning our soil and climate, that I have consented to address this 

 Society upon this subject. 



While the mean annual temperature of this region is undoubtedly lower than 

 in the latitude of Southern Michigan and Ohio, it is nevertheless a fact that 

 the thermometer never falls as low in its utmost extreme in a large portion of 

 this country, embracing the rolling lands mentioned, as it does in latitudes 

 three hundred miles further south, and damaging vernal and autumnal frosts 

 arc unknown. It is not the mean annual temi^erature of a country that deter- 

 mines its capacity for fruit production, but the extremes of heat and cold and 

 the liabdity of damage from late vernal or early autumnal frosts. The deep 

 waters of Lake Michigan, Grand Traverse Bay and the inland lakes act as a 

 great thermal regulator receiving and retaining the heat of summer to yield it 

 back again to temper the rigors of winter. The great depth and volume of 

 these waters receiving the heat of summer from the sun, the wind and the rain, 

 and the vast number of streams that pour in from every side, form a reservoir 

 of heat which the coldest winters of the latitude cannot exhaust to the freezin;:: 

 point. The heavier the winter storms, the more powerful the action of the 

 water to temper its severity. No storm from south, west, or north, or any 

 point of the compass between, ever reduces the temperature much, if any, be- 

 low zero anywhere in this region. That coldest of all storms, known as the 

 New Year's storm of 18G4, reduced the thermometer to only 13° below zero at 

 Traverse City, forty miles, on the line of the winds, inland from the lake shore. 



The manner in which the water acts to temper the air so much more in 

 storms than in still weather, is simple, and easily explained. When the surface 

 of the lake is smooth and the air still, only the lower surface of the air and the 

 upper surface of the water come in contact. When the breeze grows fresh, 

 then the billows commence rolling, and the under-current of air is broken 

 against them, giving it a rolling motion, bringing more of the air in contact 

 with the water, and when the wind increases to a gale, the billows break, the 

 spray and foam leap into and mingle with the air, and the heat of the water is 

 thus absorbed by the air many times more rapidly than when the water is still. 

 The air, although unseen, is in much greater commotion than tlie water. 

 Striking the billows, it rolls under and rises again in constant ascending and 

 descending whirls, and thus for an hundred miles it dashes on through foam 

 and S]n-a3% sweeping the crests of the billows, and absorbing heat so rapidly 

 that when it reaches the east shore it is mild and bland compared with the 

 freezing fury in which it swept the western prairies a few hours before. 



The lowest point which our thermometers register during the winter is always 

 reached on some clear still night when the influence of the lake is less felt. It 

 is on such nights that the peculiar topography of our country exerts its favora- 



