190 AMERICAN HOME GARDEX. 



larger, but less rich, both in flavor and saccharum, than the 

 same fruits raised with less luxuriance of growth on poorer 

 soil. Our Western apples are beautiful in appearance, but do 

 not command the price of those raised upon the hills that bor- 

 der the Hudson, either in domestic or foreign markets. The 

 vineyards of the hills, and not of the level and fertile valleys 

 of France, make the richest qualities of wines. 



EFFECT OF CLIMATE. 



Speaking generally, fruits gradually increase in richness and 

 variety as we proceed from the north southward to the tropics. 

 But the natural boundaries of the various families of fruits are 

 limited, having probably as their centre a line of perfection, of 

 greater or less width, for each particular tribe, which, as we di- 

 verge from that line, deteriorates under our hand. As an illus- 

 tration merely, we may assume the latitude of 42 to be the 

 line of perfection for the apple, 38 or 40 for the pear and 

 cherry, and 30 or 35 for the vine. But certain kinds of any 

 given class of fruits are also better suited than others to the 

 particular varieties of climate found within these natural bound- 

 aries, and we say therefore of one apple it is a Northern, and 

 of another it is a Southern fruit, and we make lists of them as 

 they are supposed to be suited to the colder or warmer regions 

 of the zone to which the family belongs. 



We may also conclude ordinarily that the varieties of fruits 

 best suited to a given region will be those which have origi- 

 nated in it or in some other region of like location. The New- 

 town pippin, which is the chief of apples where it can be prop- 

 erly matured, attains its perfection only near the line of lati- 

 tude in which it originated, and when exempted from the in- 

 fluence of a too cold or humid soil. The Rhode Island green- 

 ing, lively and piquant in its proper latitude, becomes flat and 

 worthless in a Southern climate. 



As we fcring varieties toward the central line of perfection 

 from the North, the influence of the change of climate is similar 

 to that of a single particularly long and warm summer in their 

 native region, or of transfer to a warmer soil, or to a locality 

 where the temperature is modified by a river or body of water, or 



