GEOGRAPHY OF PLAXTS. 



511 



We have seen tHat success attended the attempts to grow the acclimated 

 Caraccas wheat even in New Providence under a mean t<-mperature of 72°, 

 which prevails during the winter and spring of the Bahamas, when the 

 humidity is much diminished, and that varieties adapted to the region grow 

 freely ou the banks of the Saskatchewan in a high northern latitude, where the 

 highest mean temperature of a summer month is but 61.8"^. We have shown 

 that a reduction of two degrees only from the mean temperature of each day, 

 for one ov two months in Britain, curtailed a loss of one-third to one-half of the 

 crop of whiat.* This diminution in the product brought upon thout^auds the 

 fear of famine, and upon all increased expenditure, and upon the nation an 

 aggregate loss of millions of pounds sterling. This prospective deficiency was 

 clearly foreshadowed at the close of July of that year, (1853,) and known t)r 

 could have been known by those who gave attention to observations of the 

 temperature received at the time from England and northern Europe, with 

 some degree of clearness in anticipation of their realization. 



If the diminution of the mean temporattire of each day by about two degi-eea 

 for one or two months over western Europe appear to be a trifling incident, its 

 eflfects were of vast magnitude to commerce. Mark one of the results in stimu- 

 lating the export of wheat flour and Indian corn and meal from the United 

 States. In the preceding and following years the export of breadstuffs 

 amounted to the values annexed thereto, as follows : 



In 1851 we exported 

 In 18.52 we exported 

 In 1 85:? we exported 

 In 1854 we exported 

 lu 1835 we exponed 



Indian com 

 and meal. 



Wheat and 

 wheat floiu. 



|2, 300 000 

 2, 000 000 

 2 000,000 

 7 000 000 



8, cog, 000 



$11,500,000 

 14,r.00,000 

 19,000,000 

 4'J 000 000 

 12, 000, 000 



We perceive that though the amount of export had been increasing gradually, 

 that in the year ending June, 1854, it trebled the corn and doub'ed the export 

 of wheat and wheat flour ; and that though the demand for corn increased the 

 following year, 1855, that for wheat and wheat flour fell below the average 

 of former years. We may perceive in the above a striking dlu-tratiun of the 

 vast results attendant upon a seemingly trifling modification of the m -an tem- 

 perature during a critical period in the life of a plant : reali-.e our daily depend- 

 ence on the wisdom and benevolence of creative Providence, of which every 

 truly enlightened mind perceives fresh evidence wherever it may turn to con- 

 sider the works of Him who can bless and can blast. 



In concluding this part of our subject we cannot refrain from the remark, 

 that, in contemplating wheat culture from the point of view which we have 

 chosen, we have been renewedly impressed with evidences of the wisdom and 

 beneficence of the Almighty Father who watcheth over his children for good. 

 Not only do we remark the flexibility of the cereal plants, so admirably fitted 



* S'Dce the above was written we have met with the following in a notice of "An Essay 

 Dn the Meteorological Conditions which Detennine the Profitable and Unprofitable Culture of 

 FaiTO Crops in Scotland." by Mr. Bnchan. 186<.»: 



"The dependence of the Scottish agriculturist on the climate is significantly proclaimed by 

 the statement that 'the chief peculiarity of the climate of Scotland, with regard to the culti- 

 vation of thf corn crops, consists in the mean summer temperature being withn tu-o degrees of 

 the minimum temperature required for the perfect maturiry of wheat and barley crops.' Tho 

 prudent Scottish agriculturist will do well to bear in mmd that a var.ation in stmimer tem 

 peratmo, to the extent of two degrees, may blight all his feopes. — Edinburgh Jomnal of Agri 

 caltuie, 1861." 



