96 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



because I have that very difficulty. I know that the ground 

 is rich enough, and I have not been able to find out why the 

 fruit was not better. 



You have spoken of another point, and that is with refer- 

 ence to frost running down hill. That is your experience, 

 but is that backed up by science ? 



Mr. Hale. I am not a scientist, nor the son of a scientist. 



Mr. BowKER. That is a very interesting question, for, 

 if we know that frost is going down hill right away from 

 elevated locations, those are just the places wdiere we want 

 to grow certain crops. 



Mr. Hale. I do not mean that the frost is all going 

 away, so that you can grow peaches on top of a hill as you 

 can grow potatoes at the foot ; but I mean that it makes a 

 more even temperature. It is cooler in summer up there 

 and warmer in winter. 



Mr. BowKER "We know that as we pass down through a 

 valley there is a cold stratum of atmosphere, and as we go 

 up the temperature becomes warmer. 



Now another point. You said that our winters are less 

 severe than they were fifty years ago ; that is, there is less 

 snow now than formerly ? 



Mr. Hale. Yes, sir. 



Mr. BowKER. What is the record, Professor Goessmann ? 



Professor Goessmann. Professor Snell of Amherst Col- 

 lege, who has weather records for fifty years, says that, 

 taking the average temperature of the winter months for 

 twenty-five years, there is not a dillerence of half a degree. 



Mr. Hale. Has he a record as to the fall of snow? 



Professor Goessmann. No, sir. 



Mr. Hale. The statement that I made was as to the 

 average temperature, comparing the last ten years with fifty 

 years ago. I take it for grantcul that it is as I stated it, 

 from the observations of i)ractical men. We do not have 

 any colder weather now than we had then, but in olden 

 times they had deeper snows, and the snow carpeted the 

 roots of the trees. 



Mr. McIntosii. I can remember back more than fifty 

 years, and I know that fifty years ago it was a rare thing 

 not to see snow on the ground from about Thanksgiving 

 time until the first of April. 



