8o stateT pomologicai. society. 



wise all other forms of plant life) we begin to deal with influ- 

 ences that are not so well defined in their effects and are less 

 tangible than the influence of soil. We can handle the soil and 

 see it; in its material form, it seems to be a part of us. But 

 with climate it is otherwise, and its effects are often mysterious 

 to a wonderful degree. But we want to think of these effects 

 for a few moments in terms of plant life, and especially in their 

 ability to produce variation. 



What is climate, anyway ? We speak of the weather of today, 

 or of last week, or of some previous year, but we do not talk of 

 the climate of last week. The climate of any place has been 

 described by the chief of the weather bureau, U. S. Department 

 of Agriculture, to be "what may be expected to occur as the 

 result of the study of its continuous weather records for a long- 

 period of years, — the atmospheric pressure, the temperature, the 

 rainfall and snowfall, the time and frequency of frost, the 

 extremes of heat and cold, the direction and velocity of the wind, 

 the amount of air that flows from the different points of the 

 compass, the amount and intensity of sunshine, the humidity 

 and transparency of the atmosphere, and its electrification." * 

 In other words, the climate of any place is the sum-total of the 

 weather of that place for an indefinitely long period of time. 

 The same authority also broadly divides climates into marine, 

 continental, mountain, and plain, with the many variations pro- 

 duced as these conditions gradually or precipitately shade off 

 the one into the other. 



From the above analysis of climate into the various elements 

 which constituted it, it is obvious that the influences which it 

 exerts must be manifold in the extreme, for as we consider the 

 different elements which go to make up the climate of a place, 

 we cannot escape the conviction that each one must be potent, 

 in some way, in forming the characteristics of the fruit grown 

 under those particular climatic conditions. If we view the mat- 

 ter with any sentiment at all, when we consider all the varied 

 climatic influences, together with the many complicationf- of the 

 soil factor, we may be led to exclaim "How does any variety or 

 any form of plant life whatsoever know how to act or A\hat to 

 do with all these varying forces trying to influence it their way ?" 



* y'nr a more extended discussion of climate by same author, see this subject in 

 Encyclopedia Americana. 



