246 RANGE OF CLIMATE. 



from more than two hundred towns in Massachusetts, 

 and from several different states, and these alone would 

 make a valuable volume of themselves. I can, of 

 course, do no more than extract from them as freely as 

 space will permit, which I shall do at greater length in 

 subsequent chapters. 



The range of climate of the United States is so exten- 

 sive, embracing, we may almost say, the tropical heats 

 on the one hand, and the short summers and severe 

 winters of the Canadas on the other, that the grasses 

 adapted to one region would not even succeed in 

 another. Some grasses which are eminently adapted to 

 sandy soils of a moist climate will not grow on similar 

 arid soils in a drier climate and under a hotter sun. 



Blodget, in a valuable article on the climatology of 

 this country, makes the following judicious remarks, 

 which I have somewhat condensed, on account of their 

 length : 



As now cultivated (says he), or as relied upon in their 

 natural growths, there are two well-marked divisions of 

 American and naturalized grasses belonging to the dry 

 and humid climates, respectively, of the whole United 

 States. There is another distinction in the tempera- 

 ture of moist climates, as the cultivated grasses do not 

 go into the warmer portions of the country, however 

 humid. The English grasses are the principal ones, 

 embracing the genera Poa, Phleum, Festuca, Agrostis, 

 and Dactylis ; and their most striking peculiarity is the 

 uniform turf they form in growth. Most of these are 

 very well adapted to the climate of the Northern and 

 Eastern States, and of the North Pacific coast; and 

 they here form the great reliance of cultivators. But 

 they also approach their climatic limit here very nearly 

 in both temperature and humidity, and prove their 

 native position to be in a more equable climnte. The 

 winter of the upper parts of the New England States 

 and of New York is sometimes destructive from low 



