THE SECKETARY'S PORTFOLIO. 391 



Traverse on the north to St. Joscpli on the sontli, and inland from two to ten 

 or more miles, according to the topogra])hy of tlie country, a distance of nearly 

 200 miles north and south. But in the spring of 1875 commenced the funerals 

 and cremation of most of the peach and a great sliare of all other fruit trees 

 through the whole extent of this "Peacli Belt," except upon the most elevated 

 locations. We had been taught in our schoolboy days, that as we go up, the 

 air becomes colder; so much so, that on the highest mountains — even under 

 the equator — there were peri)etual ice and snow, and aeronauts tell us of the 

 extreme cold of the upper regions, all of which we have no right to doubt. 



But experience, that grand and truthful old school-master, tells us that if we 

 Avould avoid the killing frosts of spring and autumn, and the blighting elfccts 

 of mid-winter, we must plant our tender fruits on the elevations and shun the 

 valleys. Llence arose the expression of a writer on this subject, "get up high 

 with your plants if you would avoid killing frosts, but if you get too high you 

 and your plants will freeze to death together." 



Much has been said in favor of trees, arboreal belts and forests as protections 

 to animals and plants, against cold, especially in breaking the force of winds, 

 which always and everywhere disperse and carry away from the place where 

 generated a portion of the heat produced by all animals. Now, these ideas 

 about bights producing or reaching cold, and at the same time lesser bights 

 being a protection against the effects of cold, are not, by any means, whims or 

 irreconcilable one with the other. They are both true, however inconsistent 

 they may at first sight appear. In the case of protection to plants, it is not 

 really altitude that effects any good ; for most surely its effect is injurious in a 

 degree in proportion to its bight; but the favorable effect is produced simply 

 by the contiguous lower grounds that allow the air as it cools and (consequently 

 becomes heavier and sinks to the ground) to drain off and give place to the 

 warmer air above it. But this is not all. It is generally known that these 

 killing frosts of late spring and early fall occur only on still, cloudless nights ; 

 that winds, even "gentle zephyrs" and thin, transparent clouds operate to 

 prevent them, the first by mixing the cold with the warmer air, and the last by 

 preventing the rapid escape upward of the heat from the earth, and still further 

 by creating a current downward of the cool air of the hillside, and upward of 

 the air heated in the valley during sunshine. 



The fact is familiar to farmers that their corn is often frost-bitten in the val- 

 leys, while it escapes on higher grounds, but the fact that the same thing was 

 possible iu mid-winter, even so far as to destroy whole plantations of peach trees 

 on level or slightly hollow aspects, was left to be demonstrated most fully on 

 this celebrated "Peach Belt" during the period mentioned. In the wliole 

 length of this belt we heard of no peach trees of choice varieties that survived 

 this cold wave, except upon these high and airy aspects, where the air had free 

 circulation. Other fruit trees suffered less proportionately in the oi'der here 

 mentioned: pears, cherries, plums, and apples, in each of which some varieties 

 escaped in ordinary exposures, but a much larger proportion stood the winter on 

 the elevations mentioned. These facts have here given rise to the expression, 

 "atmospheric drainage," and the lessons taught us by these disasters are: 

 first, in planting fruit trees to take tliis matter into serious consideratioti in the 

 selection of aspects, and second, to select for our orchards such varieties as have 

 escaped serious injury during the period mentioned, or, as some have expressed 

 it, to "plant only ironclads." 



I have noticed that many are under a mistake about the effect of winds upon 



