PHENOLOGY RECORDS 19 



early season are not reliable for the staple records of the years. 

 Useful plants for study are the following : 



Apple. Cultivated Strawberry. 



Pear. Lilac. 



Quince. Mock Orange (Philadelphus) . 



Plum. Horse Chestnut. 



Sweet Cherry. Red-pith Elder. 



Sour Cherry. Common Elder. 



Peach. Flowering Dogwood. 



Choke Cherry. Native Basswood. 



Wild Black Cherry. Native Chestnuts. 



Japanese or Flowering Quince. Privet or Prim. 



Cultivated Raspberry. Red Currant. 



Cultivated Blackberry. Cultivated Grape. 



Climate and Crop Production; keeping Records (Wilson) 



Every farmer understands that a very intimate relation exists be- 

 tween climatic conditions the average temperature, rainfall, and 

 sunshine and the growth of plants ; but not all farmers appreciate 

 the full significance of the climatic factor in crop production. 



An officer of a state college of agriculture recently asked five members 

 of the faculty to assign respective values to the three main factors 

 affecting the average yield of corn under the climate of the forty- 

 second parallel. The factors considered were : soil, including texture, 

 fertility, and cultivation ; climate, including temperature, rainfall, and 

 sunshine ; and seed. The average of the five estimates on the basis 

 of 100 were for soil, 46 ; climate, 36 ; and seed, 17. Three out of the 

 five gave to climate a value of 40, one 35, and one 25, and two out of 

 the five gave climate and soil equal values. 



If these estimates are near the truth, it becomes apparent that 

 climate is nearly, if not quite, as important a factor in crop pro- 

 duction as soil, and much more important than seed; yet it receives 

 but scant attention from the average agriculturist, probably because 

 climate, unlike soil and seed, is beyond the control of man. 



The weather is a variable factor, because it changes from day to day, 

 from week to week, and from season to season. But climate is a per- 

 manent factor ; for climate, which is the average of all the weather, 



