299 
Wheat crop in Ohio, by years, since 1850. 
[From Fritz (1889), p. 303. The figures for 1850-1877 refer to the average of two coun- 
ties, viz, Belmont in the southeast and Erie on the north border of the State. The fig- 
ures for 1878-1883 are averages for the whole State.] 
Bushels || Bushels || Bushels 
per acre. || per acre. per acre. 
~ |i 
AE ak fee cee DIE. TAO, Soe ae oe Ss Ego ula yf eee eee US 17.8 
tsi oe 2 eee TON Pi 3 Oe ro) || acy ieee ee 13.3 
Acne ere te - Wee ldees|| teed oes Ps rah lf eae 14.5 
TORS Gk ae hb HSS ieee ee Ne TX GES) | e1Svieee estore 11.6 
TES BR ee aaa Oui IGGGseeseee eee ne LOST MIST Sines Sena tent 16.9 
HGnnee Meese scr 0.2 te . AVR | 1S ty ell ee cee TE A | Sy We ee ee 17.7 
(U2 ites a ee dae 4119682 wel Tete TEEN |e eeOer ee tek cere ead 17.1 
1857 ___..- ei eee TORT] lel S69 Se ee ees eae ISISS ies a ewe er oanae | 13.8 
fgpouien aie Weare te OL eli Merow Ubi te) Ae Ue ceay TE hae ey A Ae SR 15.6 
se Coe ee IAPs lee lee ta en NCD lise ae der pee vas § 16.6 
iC) ee LSSBA | RIBT oben see ee 8.5 || 
(17 ape eee Ne SUEY I TRIOS ue So ee toe 14.4 || 
GRASSES. 
Relative to the acclimatization of the grasses Sporer (1867) says: 
As in the Alps and Himalayas up to altitudes of 15,000 to 16,000 
feet, so also in the farthest north, beyond the limit of trees, the 
grasses flourish. The varieties that compose the grassy carpet of 
Taimyr are still somewhat numerous. They embrace 10 families 
and 21 species; about one-half belong to *the sour-grass family, 
the binse or rushes, ried (reed), woold or cotton grass. But fully 
one-half are the sweet grasses, such as in central Europe are esteemed 
the best fodder, and not less so in Taimyr Land, where they extend to 
the shores of the icy Arctic Ocean beyond latitude 75° 30’ north, 
including among them the “ wiesen ” or meadow grass, the rispen or 
ray grass (Poa pratensis), and the “ rasen schmiele” or turfy hair 
erass, Aira deschampsia cespitosa. It is not surprising, therefore, 
that the best milch cattle, the so-called “ cholmogor breed,” the suc- 
cessors of the cattle transported thither from the Netherlands by the 
care of Peter the Great, should flourish in the desert polar regions at 
Mesenja. 
The sour grasses, as genuine early spring plants, form their flowers 
in the previous summer season, and at the beginning of the northern 
summer (July 10 to 20) are in the fullest bloom and have already 
turned brown when the sweet grasses begin to show their flower buds. 
In general the ground thaws only to the depth of a few inches and 
the roots do not penetrate into the frozen soil. The tundra of north- 
ern Russia and Siberia rests on such a frozen soil; the steppe or 
prairie or llano rests on unfrozen, deeper, and dryer soil. 
The modest circle of plants that surrounds our Arctic Circle is 
not so complexly constituted under different longitudes as are those 
of the warmer phenological girdles of the globe; everywhere we 
have the same species of plants and the same families; everywhere 
the graminex, the cruciferee, the caryophyllee, and the saxifra- 
gaceee, are the dominating families, and among the genera the Draba 
Sawifraga, Ranunculus, Carex, and the meadow grasses; all these 
