498 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



and that those enjopng a moan for the liottcst month above 67° produce su- 

 perior fruit and wines. Tliis is precisely paralleled iu our table of American 

 varieties grown at Waterloo, New York, where we have observed that those 

 which could hasten their growth so that they could take advantage of the high 

 mean of G9°, during the month following the stoning process, were of good or 

 of superior quality ; those which stoned so late as to have only 67", or there- . 

 abouts, were inferior, and that those which found a temperature of 65°, or 

 thereabouts, did not ripen. 



The short warm summer of northern latitudes with its longer days advances 

 the vine as rapidly as the high temperature in places further south ; but the 

 diminished heat of September precludes the proper elaboration of the juices 

 and maturation of the seed and saccharine iu the late-gi'owing sorts. By an 

 examination of the table in which is instituted a comparison between the mean 

 temperatures for the growing seasons at West Point, in the valley of the Hud- 

 son, and several points in the valley of the Mississippi, we may observe that, 

 while at the former place the mean temperature for September falls to 64.31° — 

 a mean nowhere exceeded in the State of New York from the year 1826 to 

 1850, as shown by the "Reports, &c.," except at Buffalo, where it was only 

 eight-hundredths of a degree higher, while the mean for all the places observed 

 in the State was 59.87° — our table shows that at Fort Madison, Iowa, the 

 mean for September stood at 71.5^ ; at Athens, Illinois, 73° ; and at St. Louis, 

 68.7" ; while the mean of the hottest month varied between 73° and 82.5° — 

 heats adequate to mature, with the favorable high temperatures of September, 

 vines of the most "southern proclivities," or such as require the longest season 

 and the warmest skies. 



Here a comparison between this part of the valley of the Mississippi and the 

 south of France, the vine regions of Portugal, Spain, Italy, and Madeira, will 

 show that the temperature of the warmest month in the Mississippi valley is 

 identical with that of the latter-named places, so famous for their genial summers 

 and generous wines, while the autumn mouths are equally propitious. The 

 Concord, the Catawba, and Anna, which find the cold of September in middle 

 New York unfavorable to their ripening, when removed to the warm regions of 

 Illinois and Missouri, under their high and long-continued heats, develop 

 qualities so surpassing those they exhibit in the northeastern States, as to be 

 scarcely recognized as the product of the same varieties, respectively, grown ia 

 the latter localities. 



Those who have attentively perused the foregoing attempt to determine the 

 amount of heat needed by the American wine grape during its various stages 

 of growth will, we doubt not, perceive therein strongproof of the importance of 

 close attention to the demands of each variety when selecting for culture at 

 various localities, and will regard with interest the meteorological peculiarities 

 of their place of habitation. To all such we would say that we believe that 

 if they would add to the knowledge of the mean temperatures of their vine- 

 yard, the general fact of adequate atmospheric humidity — for in the present state 

 of meteorological knowledge we cannot determine for each place, by aid of any 

 deductions from iaistrumental observations yet made and tabulated, any special 

 rules for its determination — and will be guided by the instructions for ascer- 

 taining the isotherms bounding the regions of successful grape culture in the 

 United States east of the Mississippi, as enunciated in the Agricultural De- 

 partment report for 1862, all whi^h our recent research, as developed in this 

 paper, but confirm, they will not have reason to doubt the worth of our sugges- 

 tions and their practical value.* 



*A typogvaphical error of much importance occurs in the article here referred to, which 

 this occasion offers the only opportunity for correcting. On page 195, first line, " America" 

 ehoold read Armenia. 



