XVII.] CLOUDINESS AND PLANT -GROWING. 307 



certain lakes in western New York so closely that the 

 majority of New York grape growers are unfamiliar 

 with its cultivation, and fear that its area can not be 

 greatly extended with safety ; yet there are undoubt- 

 edly enough isolated Catawba vines in most of the 

 fruit regions of the state to enable observations to be 

 made for a term of years, and which might give rise 

 to a reliable monograph of the climatal limitations 

 of the variety within the state. 



Even the cloudiness of winter months is an impor- 

 tant consideration for those who force plants under 

 glass, and who must economize every particle of sun- 

 light in order to bring the plants to maturity quickly 

 and cheaply. I am, myself, located in a district so 

 cloudy that forcing of vegetables is scarcely profitable, 

 and if I were to engage in the business commercially, 

 1 should seriously consider moving a few miles away 

 into a sunnier area. With the increasing complexities 

 of the future and the niceties which must then be 

 practiced in order to make rural occupations profit- 

 able, it will be necessary to construct charts of cloudi- 

 ness with special reference to horticultural pursuits, 

 for not even the electric light can be expected to 

 stand for normal sunlight. 



Winter and summer climates should be studied in 

 terms of plant life quite as much as measured by the 

 customary instruments, for plants record all the influ- 

 ences of climate, while the instruments measure only 

 detached attributes. It follows that the contemporane- 

 ous effects of seasonal climates can not be well studied 

 upon the wild plants of a region, for these plants 

 have long since overcome the difficulties of the par- 

 ticular climate, or are acclimatized. Cultivated plants, 



