62 



AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



sweep in fury. This very fact of uncvenness furnishes a choice of pleasant 

 sites for comfortable residences, of localities for vineyards and orchai-d^s, and of 

 a general adaptation of situation to ciicumstauces. 



The distribution of rain in "West Virginia is admirably calculated, in quantity 

 and seasouableness, to insure success to husbandry and give facility to all its 

 successive operations. The spring opens early, and with its opening come gen- 

 tle and frequent showers. The summer, with less humidity than any surround- 

 ing State, is not subject to long-continued droiights. The grasses spring green 

 and fresh upon the summits of the loftiest mountains during all the summer. 



The amount of rain precipitated in West Virginia is from 32 to 36 inches 

 only, as indicated by partial records kept in diti'erent parts of the State, and 

 especially in the vicinity of Lewisburg and the White Sulphur springs, where 

 the same quantity was indicated on both sides of the AUeghauies. The mean 

 annual rainfall decreases to some extent southward from Pittsburg, and its 

 minimum quantity is found in summer. No complete record of the rainfall of 

 localities in West Virginia for a term of years being at hand, it is fair, from 

 partial data at different points, from general statements in Blodgett's Climatol- 

 ogy and other works, and from expressed opinions of the most intelligent resi- 

 dents, to take Pittsburg, in Pennsylvania, as a basis of comparison between 

 western Virginia and other localities, with the balance of authority in favor of a 

 slightly lower figure for the average throughout the State than is given in the 

 following table for that city : 



Place. 



Spring. 



Summer. 



Autumn. 



Winter. 



Year. 



Cambridge, Massachusetts - 



New York city 



Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 



Pittsburg, Pennsylvania 



Washington, D. C 



Cincinnati, Ohio 



Hudson, Ohio 



Milwaukie, Wisconsin 



St. Louis, Missouri 



10.85 



11.69 



10.97 



9.38 



10. 45 



12.14 



9.76 



6.00 



12.86 



11.17 

 11.64 



12. 45 



9.87 

 10.52 



13. 70 

 8.87 

 9. 70 



14.09 



12. 57 

 9. 93 



10.07 

 8.23 



10. 16 

 9. 90 

 6.16 

 6.80 

 8.71 



9.89 



10.39 



10.06 



7.48 



11.07 



11.15 



8.00 



4.30 



6.29 



44.43 

 43. 65 

 43. 56 

 34. 96 

 41.20 

 46.89 

 32. 79 

 27. 20 

 41.95 



The only region here shown to be of like humidity is that of the lakes, of 

 which Hudson, Ohio, is a representative. Prom data believed to be reliable, 

 the Kanawha valley is characterized by a rainfall almost precisely similar to 

 that of the country bordering upon the southern and western shores of Lake Erie. 



SALUBRITY. 



It would scarcely need the corroboration of sanitary facts to prove the health- 

 fulness of this region. The altitude, the irregularity of surface, the absence of 

 marshy plains, so peculiarly characteristic of West Virginia, would give, in 

 connexion with its medium tempei'ature, assurances of health and longevity to 

 her population. The following is an exhibit of the yearly per-centage of mor- 

 tality, for twenty years past, in the different sections of the country : 



Place. 



Mississippi valley, proper 

 Soulbern Atlantic coast. . 



Kew England 



Interior areas 



Alleghany region 



Northwestern States 



Pacific coast 



1860. 



1.81 

 1.34 

 1.24 

 1. 32 

 1.08 

 .98 

 .95 



