HORTICULTURAL AND OTHER NOTES ON ST. LOUIS. 



157 



month in 1845 was 41°. Ducks and geese 

 began to fly northward, bluebirds appeared, 

 and several shrubs put forth leaves. Coldest 

 point 22°, warmest 71°, range 49°. The 

 mean of February was 43° ; of March 42° ; 

 but the range was greater in both these 

 months than in January. Coldest point in 

 March 20° ; warmest 74° ; range 54°. In 

 April the mean was 64° ; coldest 30°; warm- 

 est 85° ; range 55°. And in all the months 

 of the year, we have sudden and great varia- 

 tions, the thermometer often ranging 20° 

 within two or three hours. The frosts of 

 early April generally find the apricot, the 

 peach, the cherry, the plum, in full bloom. 

 I have heard some of the older inhabitants 

 insist, that a full crop of peaches is not 

 realized more than once in five years, ow. 

 ing to premature blossoming. My own ex- 

 perience is corroborative of the general fact, 

 which also applies to apricots and nectarines. 

 Yet some of our trees wholly escape, and 

 are overburdened with fruit ; as is the 

 case the present year, notwithstanding se- 

 vere frosts near the middle of April. 



In 1841, the greatest cold was 6° leloio 

 zero, January 17. The greatest heat 102°, 

 July 13. Variation 108°. Greatest heat 

 in February, 70° ; greatest cold, 4°. We 

 consider a cold February and March most 

 favorable for our fruit. The mean of Feb- 

 ruary, 1845, was 43°. We had very little 

 fruit that year. The mean of February, 

 1846, was 32°. We have an abundant crop. 

 The greatest heat of the present unusually 

 hot year all over the country, was 98° early 

 in July- No rain of any consequence for 

 more than two months. 



The average mean temperature of seven 

 years prior to 1836, according to our late 

 Association of Natural Sciences, was as 

 follows : 



January, - - - - 29 . 5 

 February, - - - 34.5 



March, - 



April, 



May, - 



June, 



July, 



August, - 



September, 



October, - 



November, 



December, 



42. 



58. 



65. 



73. 



78. 



74.6 



66.9 



55.8 



49.2 



33.7 



55.2 



Annual range, 108°. 



This is 5°. 2 hotter than what is said to be 

 the med ium annual temperature of the whole 

 earth. It is six or seven degrees hotter than 

 the average temperature of London ; two or 

 three degrees less than that of Washington 

 city ; one or two degrees less than that of 

 Cincinnati, Ohio, and New-Harmony, In- 

 diana ; if the published meteorological sta- 

 tistics of those places are correct. Only 

 two degrees hotter than that of Philadelphia ; 

 and eight degrees hotter than that of Bos- 

 ton. About eleven degrees less than that 

 of New-Orleans. Yet St. Louis has the 

 reputation of being excessively hot. 



The annual and monthly range of the 

 thermometer is much greater at St. Louis 

 than at London or New-Orleans. It is less 

 than at Albany and Newburgh, and much 

 less than that at many other towns in New- 

 York. There is more uniformity and more 

 humidity in the climate of London than in 

 that of St. Louis. The thermometer will 

 indicate as high a degree of "greatest heat" 

 at Albany in summer, as it will in St. Louis ; 

 and in winter, it will show the " greatest 

 cold " at Albany. But we have the great- 

 est heat for the greatest length of time at 

 St. Louis, and the sun's rays seem to be 

 more direct and scorching. We have no 

 mountains, except in the south interior part 



