Meteorological Journal at Marietta, Ohio, for 1842. 349 



along this lake is the most certain fruit-producing district in the 



i 



west. The trees here are not only later in blooming, but the 

 northerly and westerly breezes, which bring our late frosts, being 

 elevated in temperature by their passage across this great body of 

 water, no doubt conduce largely to this exemption. No portion 

 of the United States is better suited to the growth of fruit than 

 the southerly shore of Lake Erie, to the distance of fifteen or 

 twenty miles inland. 



On the first and second mornings of April there was a smart 

 frost, which destroyed the larger portion of the pears. The blos- 

 soms of this fruit stand out on such a long foot-stalk, that they 

 are more liable to be killed by frosts than almost any other; the 

 peach and apple, sitting nearer to the parent stem, are much less 

 exposed, and often escape when the pear is destroyed. April 2d, 

 apple in bloom ; 3d, Circis Canadensis or red bud ; 5th, Corn us 

 florida or dog-wood — the 16th of this month is the earliest I ever 

 saw it in bloom before, and that was many years ago ; 6th, beech 



tree, Fagus ferruginea ; 10th, apple shedding its blossoms. In 



common years we are favored with the sight and smell of this 

 delicious blossom for two or three weeks, but the excessive heat 

 of this year rapidly accelerated their decay as well as that of 

 many other flowers. 17th, tulip in full bloom ; 18th, Paeonia 

 moutan or tree peony ; 19th, Juglans cinerea or butternut ; 25th, 

 yellow rose and hedgehog rose ; 29th, a hard frost. May 4th, 

 pecan tree in blossom ; 6th, Robinia pseudacacia. This tree usu- 

 ally puts out near the last of this month, but being of a slow, 

 backward nature, was not hurried so much prematurely as many 

 other trees by the early warmth of spring : last year this tree 

 bloomed the 28th of May. 8th, Primus Virginianus and Rubtis 

 villosus; 24th, peas fit for the table; 28th, strawberries ripe. 

 June 15th, red Antwerp raspberry ; 18th, cucumbers, grown in 

 the open ground, large enough to eat ; 22d, dahlia in blossom. 

 July 4th, early Chandler apple ripe. With all this precocious 

 putting forth of blossoms, the ripening of fruits was not any ear- 

 lier than in common years. 



The mean temperature of the summer months was 67°. 45, 

 which is five degrees below that of 1841, and considerably be- 

 low the mean average of former years. The excessive heat of 

 the early spring months seems to have exhausted the vigor of the 

 following summer, by spending in youth the means which are 



provided for middle age. The late spring and all the summer 



