Book V. CLIMATE OF FARMING LANDS. 705 



Sect. I. Of Climate in respect to farming Lands. 



4353. The climate of a farm is one of the circumstances over which human art has 

 less control than any other ; and a farmer who has but a temporary interest in his possession 

 may be considered as incapable of exercising any influence over it. He may improve 

 the soil and subsoil by draining and culture ; and the buildings, roads, and fences by 

 additions and alterations ; but it is for the landlord to attempt improving the climate by 

 planting, and for a future generation to enjoy the effects. 



4354. Sufficient attention, it is said in The Code of Agriculture , " is rarely paid by the 

 farmer to the nature of the climate in which his operations are carried on. Unless the 

 system he adopts be calculated for the weather his crops are likely to experience, every 

 exertion will often terminate in disappointment. The system that is. proper for warm 

 and dry situations, is not suitable for cold and wet ones ; and in a bleak and backward 

 climate, the nature of the soil ought not only to be attended to, but the utmost care 

 ought to be paid to the early sowing of the earliest varieties of seed. Even the species 

 of stock to be bred, or kept on a farm, should in a great measure be regulated by the 

 climate. Hence, this is a subject which the diligent farmer will invariably study with 

 the greatest solicitude. Climate and soil, Curwen justly remarks, are, above all other 

 considerations, those which the farmer ought constantly to keep in view." {Report to the 

 Workington Society.) 



4355. In considering the climate of a country, the following points are of peculiar im- 

 portance : its general character, and the means of its improvement ; its local heat ; the 

 light it furnishes ; the quantity of its moisture ; the prevailing winds ; its position, 

 whether maritime or inland ; the regularity of the seasons ; the phenomena to which it is 

 liable ; the productions best suited to it ; the expenses it may occasion in cultivation ; and 

 its suitableness for the introduction of exotic plants, and animals from other climates. 



4356. The general character of a climate not only depends on position or latitude, but 

 likewise on the elevation of a country above the level of the sea ; its general aspect ; the 

 vicinity to mountains, forests, bogs, marshes, lakes, and seas; the nature of the soil and 

 subsoil, and the power which the former possesses of retaining heat and moisture ; the 

 direction of the winds; the length of time the sun continues above the horizon ; the 

 difference of temperature between the day and the night ; and the extent of dry surface in 

 the neighborhood. The result of these particulars combined, form, what may be called, the 

 general character of climate. Some of the causes of an unfavorable climate cannot be 

 remedied by any human effort ; in other cases art may effect much ; but that art is ge- 

 nerally such as the farmer can seldom undertake unless with a very long lease. Ame- 

 liorations of this sort, therefore, belong to the landlord. 



4357. The importance of heat, as a stimulus to vegetation, cannot be doubted. It is 

 at a certain degree of heat that vegetation commences, and it becomes nearly stationary 

 when the temperature falls below it. There are, comparatively speaking, but few plants 

 calculated for very cold countries, and these are seldom valuable ; whereas in warm and 

 temperate regions, the variety is great, and their value unquestionable. Indeed, such 

 is the effect of cold, that while the thermometer is below 40^* of heat, the strongest plants 

 become torpid, and remain in that state while it continues. Revived by the warmth of 

 spring, and strengthened by the heat of summer, they acquire fresh life and vigor, and 

 are thus better enabled to withstand the rigors of the succeeding winter. 



4358. An increased temperature, when not carried to excess, will augment the quantity 

 of nutritive matter in a plant, or improve the quality of fruit grown under its influence. 

 Thus English barley, of equal weight, is more valuable than the Scotch, because, from 

 growing in a warmer climate, and enjoying the advantage of a greater quantity of heat 

 and light, it is more fully ripened. It thence acquires more saccharine matter, and 

 produces a greater quantity of spirits, or of malt liquor. It is also proved, by the 

 experiments of Sir Humphry Davy, that wheat ripened in a more regular and warmer 

 climate, contains more of that valuable article called gluten, than the same species of 

 grain when raised in England. 



4359. The average heat of the year is not, however, of so much importance to the 

 growth of plants, as its duration, and its steadiness at a certain degree, during the sea- 

 son when the grain is ripening. This gives the uniform climates of the continent a 

 great advantage over our variable seasons, in the production of the more delicate sorts of 

 fruit ; which, in this island, are often injured by the frosts in spring, and seldom ripen 

 in a northern climate, where the greatest summer heat is both unsteady and of short 

 duration. 



4360. The quantity of solar light which a climate furnishes, is likewise an important 

 object of inquiry. Light is essential to increase the proportion of starch or farina ; to 

 complete the formation of oils in plants; and to give to fruits their proper color and 

 flavor. It has also the effect of augmenting saccharine matter, insomuch that those 



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