OF FRUIT TREES. 47 



our own country. " The choice of a proper soil 

 and exposure," says Dr. Mease, (Dom. Ency.) "is 

 not sufficiently attended to in the United States. 

 Mr. Riley, of Marcus Hook, whose experience in 

 cider is inferiour to none, assures the editor, that 

 apples growing in a good loose soil, produce much 

 more rich and generous liquor than those that grow 

 in a stiff clayey land." An orchard, says an English 

 writer, should rather be derated than low, as on a 

 gentle declivity open to the south and southeast, 

 to give free admission to the air and rays of the 

 sun, as well as to dry up the damp, and dissipate 

 fogs, in order to render the trees healthy, and give 

 a fine flavour to the fruit It should likewise be 

 well sheltered from the east, north, and westerly 

 winds. The blossoms of apple trees are liable to 

 be injured by spring frosts, when the trees are 

 planted in the lowest parts of a confined valley. In 

 the domestick encyclopedia, Dr. Mease has inserted 

 an excellent paper on the climate of the United 

 States, by colonel Tatham, from which I extract as 

 follows. " It is a fact that in those western parts 

 of the United States, which have a high exposure 

 to the winter's blast, the northern sides of a ridge 

 or mountain arrive sooner and more certainly at a 

 state of perfect vegetation, than the south sides, 

 which are laid open to the power of the sun. I 

 account for this phenomenon as follows : I suppose 

 that the southern exposure to the vehement rays 

 of the sun, during the infant stages of vegetation, 

 puts the sap in motion at too early a period of the 

 spring, before the season has become sufficiently 

 steady to afford nurture and protection to the vege- 

 tating plant, blossom or leaf; and when in this state, 

 the first efforts of vegetation are checked by the 

 chilling influence of cold nights, and such changeable 

 weather as the contest between winter and spring 

 is ever ready to produce, in their apparent strug- 

 gles to govern the season. On the contrary, the 



