88 THE CLIMATE OF THE CHESTER DISTRICT 
TABLE I. 
Nosor icres Proportion of 
f Orchards to 
County. pee Yer roo Acres 
Population. of Sie 
Hereford ee se at 4 4.2 6 
Worcester... om aa at 1.4 4 
Middlesex... - “i ax 0.07 2.8 
Somerset i os ae sree 2.2 2.7 
Devon : os Ba ce 2.7 2.24 
Gloucester... ae > a6 1.5 2.17 
Kent Rs re ‘cf oc 1.2 2 
Monmouth ... as a ae 1.9 1.5 
Cornwall BF its * Ae 2.4 0.85 
Dorset ae oe aie es 3.2 0.76 
Surrey i ts Sic a6 0.4 0.59 
Notts an a 50 ae 1.6 0.38 
Wilts iu ae 44 te $63 0.37 
Cambridge .. “ fs & 2.8 0.33 
Cheshire a oa ae a. 1.2 0.32 
Lancashire .. Se ei aie 0.4 0.31 
Sussex i 5 ote 4 2.2 0.29 
Warwick te we ve oe 0.9 0.24 
Lincoln Br a ie sie 4 0.10 
Denbigh én sts bf od 3-7 0.07 
Cumberland .. Fe ue ne 4.4 0.05 
There is a very widespread belief that the principal factor in 
determining the crop of tree fruit—viz., Pears, Apples. Cherries, 
and Plums, with which alone I am at present concerned, is the 
amount of frost in spring when the trees are in blossom. If 
this were the case, then the west coasts of England, Wales, 
Scotland, and, still more, of Ireland, would be the most tavour- 
able climate, not only in our own islands, but of all Europe, 
north of, say, the 45th parallel of latitude, for growing fruit, 
and North America, except the Southern States, would not have 
a chance against us with their rigorous winters. Yet as a 
matter of fact we find that precisely those countries that have 
the coldest winters are the greatest producers of the above tree 
fruits, and that those, like our own west coasts, that have a mild 
and equable climate, produce the least. This clearly points to 
some other cause than the above as determining the suitability 
of any given area for the production of fruit, and there can be 
little doubt that this will be found to be the summer temperature, 
and that the higher this is the better for this purpose. And 
inasmuch as a country having a dry atmosphere, which offers 
less resistance to the radiation of heat from the sun to the earth 
on the one hand, and from the earth into space on the other, 
than a moist one, will have at once hotter summers and colder 
winters than a moist country, it follows that the further we go 
from the breezes which reach our western coasts laden with 
moisture from their long sweep over the Atlantic, the more 
