MICHIOAIS" STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 379 



There may be exceptions to this rule, as in the South, where 

 the fruit season is warm and dry, producing similar conditions 

 I'D those afforded by shelter under glass. "We may find varie- 

 ties, and probably shall, adapted to exposed situations ; but at 

 present the larger majority of our finer fruits will be benefited 

 by the shelter of belts of forest trees. We are glad, therefore, 

 to see the recognition of the advantages of forest trees on the 

 part of the managers of our Pacific railways, not only as afford- 

 ing shelter, but as collecting moisture from the atmosphere, 

 and so rendering available vast regions previously uninhabitable 

 from drought. This good work has already been commenced 

 on the line of tbe Kansas Pacific Railroad. 



IX. METEOROLOGY. 



Besides tlie lessons which experience has already taught us, 

 permit me to mention one which pomologists ought to learn, 

 and which, from present indications, I have no doubt they will 

 learn. The pomologist should have a better knowledge of the 

 science of meteorology than we now possess. The action of 

 light and heat, the influence of the winds, of frost, fog, water, 

 and the electrical condition of the air and earth, have a most 

 important bearing, and we believe that when our science shall 

 have attained to its greatest perfection, there will be a discreet 

 classification of our fruits, assigning to each its proper soil, 

 location, and aspect. We must not expect to alter the laws of 

 nature, but to conform to them. We do not expect to restore 

 the lost Pleiad, nor do we expect to find any supernatural 

 means whereby improvement and progress can be attained, 

 without mental or physical exertion, but we should endeavor 

 to understand some of the workings of that mysterious ma- 

 chine which generates and perpetuates all vegetable life. True, 

 "the wind bloweth where it listeth," as of old, but it seems 

 probable, if not certain, from the investigations made at Wash- 

 ington, that man can not only tell from whence it will come 

 and where it will blow, but where the sun will shed its rays 

 and the clouds diffuse their showers, and the time may come 



