302 THE SURVIVAL OF THE UNLIKE. [XVII. 



II. 



Some Inter-relations of Climatology and Horticulture ^ 



Climatology concerns the agriculturist in two gen- 

 eral directions, — in aiding him to anticipate the condi- 

 tion of the weather some hours or days and thereby 

 enabling him to plan his work with confidence, and in 

 explaining the climate of any place in such manner 

 that he can determine its probable influence upon a 

 prospective business. The former office is the one 

 which most readily appeals to the masses, and its direct 

 result is prognostication, which, to most persons, is 

 the only expression of the science. However valuable 

 prognostication may be to the mariner and the general 

 farmer, it serves the horticulturist very little ; and its 

 uses are everywhere transient. But local climate exerts 

 a most powerful influen(!e upon the plants which one 

 attempts to grow. In short, it interposes a bar some- 

 where to, the cultivation of all species, and becomes, 

 therefore, the controlling factor in every scheme of 

 rural industry. I speak of local climate, and not of 

 any mere influence of latitude, longitude, or altitude. 

 The climatal limit of any crop, in all directions, is an 

 exceedingly irregular one, presenting a series of sharp 

 curves ; that is, the local variations of climate deter- 

 mine the distributions of cultivated plants. Now, it is 

 true that crops are usually valuable in proportion to the 

 difficulty of their successful cultivation, for ouly the 

 best cultivators can succeed in such regions, and de- 

 mand is thereby lessened. This is especially true of 



> Extract from Part II. of the Report of the Chicago Meteorological Congress, 

 August. 1893. pp. 431-435. 



