49 
accumulation of available nitrogen in the soil, and that some time- 
scale for such a process can be worked out. 
Work was also continued on the climatic factors that affect 
the distribution of vegetation on Long Island, and the accumu- 
lated material and notes written up in a paper on “ Climate of 
Long Island: Its relation to forests, crops and man,” which was 
accepted for publication as a Bulletin of the New York Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station at Ithaca. 
In an island as short as Long Island, it is surprising that there 
is enough diversity in the climate to affect the distribution of 
plants, of crops, and of man. But such is emphatically the case. 
The extreme eastern end is cooler by 8° to 10° in summer and 
has a shorter frost period in winter than the western end, and re- 
sembles more nearly a true maritime climate. Its isolated position, 
surrounded by cool sea water, makes it relatively free from the 
sudden cold snaps, that, originating on the continent, strike west- 
ern Long Island with some violence. 
Studies on the temperature of the sea water show that at Mon- 
tauk it is from 4° to 10° cooler than the sea water near New York, 
and the effect of persistent southwest winds over this cool water 
makes summer temperatures so attractive that the resort value of 
the region from the Hamptons eastward is based upon this fact. 
One marked effect of this sea water on eastern Long Island is its 
relation to potato planting in the spring, and brussels sprouts 
harvesting in the fall. During March, April, and May, the coci 
water makes conditions on land admirable for early potato plant- 
ing and young growth. So marked is this coolness that the lilac 
and other plants habitually flower from 8 to 12 days later there 
than in Brooklyn. In the late autumn the accumulation of sum- 
mer heat in the sea water makes the first killing frost at Montauk 
and Orient come 10 to 20 days later than on western Long Island 
an obvious harvesting asset. 
It is, also, only at this relatively cooler end of the island that we 
find a few wild plants of far northern affinities. Whether relicts 
of glacial times, or dropped by migratory birds, the persistence 
of plants like the crowberry, the red spruce, the sea lovage, and a 
few others, is undoubtedly due to the fact that temperature con- 
ditions at the eastern end are vastly different from those at the 
western end of Long Island. 
