480 



FARMERS' REGISTER. 



[No. 8 



other grass: in these instances, if in the shade or 

 on moist ground, it loses its striped color. In one 

 instance, the roots passed under the garden wall 

 into the back yard, and entirely eradicated the 

 other grass, and occupied a number of rods of 

 ground, when it grew rank and lost its striped co- 

 lor. 1 have not been able to ascertain the best 

 mode of propagation; it produces little if any 

 seed that will vegetate. The striped grass of the 

 garden, I am confident, does not produce any; for 

 we have cultivated it for near twenty years, and 

 have never known a single spear that was pro- 

 duced from seed. The Pha'.aris that grows in 

 wet land, blossoms abundantly, but produces very 

 little seed, and that is liable to become fungus, re- 

 sembling the spurred rye. The propagation by 

 transplanting the roots into wet land among the 

 bogs, although attended with but. little labor, must 

 take considerable time to entirely eradicate the bog 

 grass, as I have proved by experiment. I trans- 

 planted, a number of years since, into a bog mea- 

 dow, some of the grass, and although it took root 

 and grew rapidly, spreading among the other 

 grass, and even sending up shoots in the centre of 

 bogs, still the bog grass remains. I planted, as 

 an experiment, about one-half of an acre bog 

 meadow with the Phalans a year last spring, it 

 having been previously ploughed for two or three 

 years; it was planted Four feet apart each way; it 

 all lived, and is spreading well, and probably in a 

 few years will occupy the whole ground, t have 

 ploughed up one acre more, and intend to plant it 

 in the same way. I also sowed some of the seed 

 last spring, procured irom grass that grew on wet 

 land, but am not certain that any of it has come 

 up. Shall sow more next spring, and hope in a 

 few years to be able to ascertain its importance, 

 and the best mode of cultivation. 



Yours, with respect, 



ANDREW HARRIS. 



Hon. EUzur Goodrich, Jr. 



From Kenrick's New American Orcliardist, (2nd edit. 1835.) 

 CLIMATE. 



The climate of the Atlantic States has been ge- 

 nerally characterized as variable and inconstant. 

 These sudden changes are caused in a great mea- 

 sure by the conflicting winds, which blow alter- 

 nately from the opposite points — the sources of 

 extreme heat and ot excessive cold. Those es- 

 pecially from the southeast, and south, bring alter- 

 nately, clouds charged with sultry vapors, or 

 storms of rain, or the fiery particles and intense 

 heat which they have inhaled in the equinoctial 

 regions. While the winds from the northwest are 

 not only dry, but coming over the enormous moun- 

 tains, covered with ice and snow, and irom the 

 immense frozen territories which stretch towards 

 the Arctic regions, and thence westward, and from 

 the great icy ocean towards the pole, they imbibe 

 at certain seasons, a degree of cold the most pier- 

 cing and intense. These adverse winds bring by 

 turns, and often by sudden changes, the heat of 

 the tropical, or the extreme cold atmosphere of 

 the polar regions. 



The disastrous effects of these sudden changes 

 from heat to cold during the spring, appear to be 

 much more sensibly experienced in the states of 



the south, than in those of the north. For in the 

 latter states, the frozen earth at its surface, is for 

 the most part protected during winter, at the 

 freezing point, by the usual covering of snow. 

 Vegetation slumbers profoundly secure, immured 

 in our winters so intensely cold, and so fortunate- 

 ly prolonged — nor awakes till the danger is 

 past. 



The climate of our country, in regard to its ca- 

 pacity and vegetable productions, is not to be esti- 

 mated by the measure of its distance from the 

 equator, nor by the average temperature of the 

 winter, or even that of the year — but rather by 

 the mean heat of summer, and its duration. For 

 while the average temperature, or heat of the year, 

 is greater at Rome, aud at Marseilles, than at 

 Cambridge, Mass. the average heat of the summer 

 months may be nearly equal, since the mean of the 

 greatest heat at Cambridge, exceeds that of Rome 

 by 11° — and that of Marseilles by 8° — the mean 

 of our greatest summer heat being 97°: though 

 100° and over, in some summers, is not with us 

 uncommon. 



From the average of the observations which 

 have been made in 20 cities on the continent of 

 Europe, the climate of America has been com- 

 pared. And the proportion of rain which annu- 

 ally falls is two-fifths greater with us than 

 with them, or as 50 inches to 30. Yet our 

 rainy days are annually, from a fourth to a third 

 less in number, than with them, or as 85 or 90 

 days of rain with us, to 122 days with them. The 

 rain with us descending in profuse showers, and 

 often in torrents, with Tremendous lightning and 

 thunder. While on the other hand, the number 

 of our fair days, or days of sunshine, in the year, 

 is double that of the 20 cities of Europe, or as 130 

 bright da\ s with us, to 64 with them. In this re- 

 spect our climate is doubly blessed, in our serene 

 skies, and our more perpetual and brilliant sun- 

 shine. 



The climate of a country is variously modified 

 by its situation in regard to mountains and to the 

 ocean. The temperature of the climate on our 

 extensive Atlantic coast, differs considerably from 

 those parts of Europe and of Africa, which lie in 

 corresponding latitudes. In like manner, the cli- 

 mate of our country will be found continually va- 

 rying, as we advance longitudinally, from its east- 

 ern to its western shores. 



It has also been observed, that within the tem- 

 perate zones, the western coasts of continents, and 

 large islands, are found to possess a higher mean 

 temperature than the eastern coasts. Our climate, 

 on the shores of the Atlantic, must, therefore, cor- 

 respond nearly with that of the eastern coasts of 

 China, Japan, and Chinese Tartary, and the 

 islands on its coast. And the climate of our coun- 

 try which bounds on the Pacific, may correspond 

 nearly with that of Europe on the coasts of the 

 Atlantic, in the corresponding latitudes. 



Elevation above the level of the ocean, has the 

 same effect in lowering the mean temperature, as 

 an increase of latitude. Mons. de Candolle has 

 ascertained, by experiments on some mountains in 

 France, that the elevation of 180 or 200 yards, af- 

 fects the mean temperature, in the same propor- 

 tion as a degree of latitude to the north, on that 

 same meridian; and in a similar proportion for any 

 increase of height. 



The growth of trees and plants, in rich moist 



