Minnesota STATE HorTicuLtvrRaAL SOcIETY. 49 
Regard for Nature's Laws. 
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As horticulturists we must bear in mind the eternal fitness of nature’s laws, 
and we of Minnesota long since learned better than to transplant a child of the 
tropics to our stubborn clime, but are compelled to look to our own latitude for 
valuable additions to our orchard and garden stock. 
Other conditions being equal, southern latitudes are more exuberant of plant 
growth. That which our latitude lacks in this seeming extravagance, is made 
up in a quicker growth and hardier structure. 
Plants vary in Nature according to Climate. 
The white oak is typical of hardiness, of strength andendurance. It flourishes 
in the swamps of Tennessee, a gigantic, tough and wiry king of the forest—its 
texture as strong and flexible almost as steel. I have followed it north, through 
Kentucky, lllinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota, and find with each degree of lati- 
tude it assumes less proportions, is of slower growth and meaner texture, until 
at the northern limit of its growth it is a dwarfed monarch. 
There is another tree, a beauty everywhere, of stronger growth south than at 
the north, that shows itself in a wide range of latitude, and an adaptability to 
circumstances that is wonderful. It is the red cedar. I have seen it in the 
bayous of the gulf, and in Georgia, upon the Cumberland mountains, resting 
upon the outcropping azoic rock, and sending its roots into the crevices for sup- 
. port; again upon the scant soil of the mountain side, then upon the rich alluvial 
soil of the bottom lands, and standing away out in the Tennessee river, 1ts trunk 
above water, its roots forming weird arches of support; and under all these con- 
ditions its growth seemed about equal, and its bright green verdare the same. 
Its color there is vastly different from the shade here. In winter it is a bright 
grassy green, and is one of the most pleasing evergreens in the South. We find 
it in Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minne- 
sota—a monster in its southern limit, a pigmy on its northern line. Hardy 
enough to stand the scorching sun of the tropics, and endure the blasts of an 
arctic winter. 
The white pine reverses the order of growth, and is a monster in Minnesota, 
and ascraggy subject in Pennsylvania and Kentucky. 
These illustrations are given to show that even the hardiest trees, and those 
of widest distribution, are subject to changes of climate to a very great degree. 
Variation of Fruit Trees. 
The fruit trees are more marked in sensitiveness. There is not one of our long 
list of apples but will grow seuth of the Ohio river, but not one in a thousand 
from that location will thrive’north of forty-three and a half. 
The season of ripening changes with changes of latitude, in fruits and vegeta- 
bles. The autumn apple of Tennessee, if it could be transplanted here, would, 
in all probability be a winter apple and a good keeper. ‘The Baldwin is a fall 
apple in Kentucky, and the Fameuse would come in about the season of our 
Duchess. The best keeping apples become perishable when grown in the South. 
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