180 



THE GENESEE FARMER 



ij' ent months, noting the changes from 4 o'clock a. m. 

 ')? to m., from noon to 8 p. m,, and from 8 p. m. to 4 

 f) a. m. When the temperature is favorable, corn 

 ill grows as much per hour in the night as in the day- 

 jlf time. No agriculturist is so far advanced in the 

 [jr science of climatology, as to make all that can be 

 & made of the water, solar light, and heat, which na- 

 j f ture so bountifully supplies. There is no State in 

 f , the Union where the mean temperature of summer is 

 f L too low to ripen maize, or corn, as is the case in 

 {ii\ England, Scotland, and Ireland. The cutting down 

 lj> of too n)uch timber in some parts of the country has 

 f .» operated to change, in some degree, the climate, and 

 if) render large districts more subject to alternate drouths 

 If and rainy seasons. In summer, when frequent and 

 fr'' moderate rains are greatly needed, the air is too dry 

 W to yield much more than respectable dews, for many 

 «i weeks in succession. 



Is To learn the well authenticated results of cleaning 

 jjjr forests, in drying up natural springs, and changing 

 ft climates, regularity of rains, fcc, the reader is refer- 

 li\ red to the writings of Humboldt, Kaemtz, Forbes, 

 BoussisGAULT, and other meteorologists. Humboldt 

 )'» remarks: "In felling trees which cover the crowns 

 and slopes of mountains, m-en in all climates seem to 

 be bringing on future generations two calamities at 

 once — a want of fuel and a scarcity of water.'' — 

 (Humboldt, vol. v, p. 173.) The waste of valuable 

 limber in tlio United States, to say nothing of fire- 

 wood, will hardly begin to be appreciated until our 

 population reaches fifty millions. Then the folly and 

 shortsightedness of this age will meet with a degree 

 J',' of censure and reproach not pleasant to contemplate. 

 |i' Difterent plants require unlike degrees of heat and 



|l^ light to bring them to maturity. The potato will 

 ll produce an edible tuber at a mean temperature so low 

 h that neither its own seeds nor those of any cereal can 

 |s be formed. Boussinoault found them cultivated in 

 I'll South America at an elevation having a moan heat 

 h so low as 49"^, requiring eleven months in which to 

 m grow, or 335 days between the planting and digging. 

 fl In many parts of this country, persons begin to dig 

 III) potatoes in seventy days from tho planting ; and 

 h potatoes planted the 1st of May will be ripe by tho 

 M 1st of August. In some of the southern States they 

 fill groiv best in tlie winter season. Winter barley and 

 fjl rye will mature their seeds at a lower temperature 

 j ? than wheat. Humboldt found at Jakoustk, in high 

 V Central Asia, where the earth was constantly fozen 

 |l at the depth of three feet below the surface, both rye 

 j)c and wheat yielding a return sometimes of 15 to 1 of 

 I'j seed. At that place the mercury is frozen two months 

 i'^ in tho year — the cold being over 72° below freezing. 

 i\ Short as the summers are, thoy have a mean tcmper- 

 |{i ature of G4'\ On the northern slope of Monte Rosa, 

 j]i in Switzerland, barley ceases to grow at an elevation 

 j'lj of 4,260 feet above the sea : on the southern side it 

 li^ continues to be cultivated at the height of about 6,560 

 ]!> feet. Boussinoault says that the difference is as- 

 iO cribed to local causes. 



il In studying the mean temperature and annual fall 

 of rain, including snow and dew, in the United States, 

 and the distribution of both heat and water through 

 the year, one can hardly escape the conviction that 

 no other equal area on the globe has equal agricul- 

 tural capabilities. Without including Delaware, 

 there arc within a fraction of 600,000,000 acres in 

 the southern States. On two-thirds of this vast sur- 

 face, wheat is harvested early enough in May and 

 June to permit a crop of corn to mature on the same 



land before autumn frosts. By drawing a line from 

 the Atlantic due west to the Rio Grande, so as to 

 have 300,000,000 acres south of it, on every arable 

 acre two crops of our most valuable breadstuffs can 

 be harvested in a year. Allow one-third of this area 

 for forests, the beds of rivers, and irreclaimable sur- 

 face, and there are left 200,000,000 acres for cultiva- 

 tion. On the supposition that the south had a popu- 

 lation adequate to demand such crops, 100,000,000 

 acres might be drilled with seed-wheat in November, 

 after corn harvest, putting half the needful fertilizers 

 in with the .seed, and sowing the balance broad-cast 

 in February or March, after the English and Belgian 

 practice. 



With skillful culture and feeding, an average re- 

 turn of twenty bushels per acre may reasonably be 

 expected, producing an aggregate crop of 2,000,000,- 

 000 of bushels. This crop would be harvested be- 

 tween the 15th of May and 15th of June, after which 

 a crop of corn may be grown. With a dense popu- 

 lation, as in Belgium, France, and many parts of 

 China, there can never be a real lack of fertilizers, 

 so that sixty bushels of corn can be produced on every 

 acre of arable surface in our thirty States. By this 

 estimate it is seen that the same land which had pro- 

 duced 2,000,000,000 bushels of wheat, might, so far 

 as the climate is concerned, easily yield 6,000,000,- 

 000 bushels of corn in season to seed with wheat 

 again. 



Governor Hammond of South Carolina, estimates 

 the present capacity of the slaveholding States as 

 equal to the support of 200,000,000 of inhabitants. 

 To give Virginia as dense a population as Belgium 

 has, (which exports far more of human food than 

 Virginia does,) would require all tlie people now in 

 the United States to reside in the " Ancient Do- 

 minion.'" 



Of the other 100,000,000 acres of arable soil, one- 

 half may be planted in cotton, and enriched no more 

 than to give an 'average of a bale of 400 lbs. to the 

 acre. This will secure an annual crop twenty times 

 larger than is now grown in the United States, and 

 fifteen times larger than the consumption of the 

 whole human family. There will still remain 50,- 

 000,000 acres adapted to the culture of sugar-cane, 

 rice, tobacco, and other important staples. 



Tho United States possess a territory embracing 

 over 2,000,000,000 of acres, more than a moiety of 

 which is susceptible of tillage. Taken as a whole, 

 tho country has a climate whose mean temperature 

 and fall of rain greatly favor the production of human 

 food and clothing. 



As we are now engaged in laying the foundations 

 of an empire such as the world has never soon, nor 

 scarcely conceived possible, every advantage of soil, 

 climate, natural product, and such valuable trees for 

 timber, fruit, and fuel, as may be jjrofitably cultiva- 

 ted, should command universal care and study. 



The following meteorological tables and statistics 

 are compiled from the accounts received at this office, 

 and contain valuable information as to the tempera- 

 ture, fall of rain, fee, in various jjarts of the United 

 States. We condense as follows : 



MEAN ANNUAL DEI' Til OF IIAIM. 



Placfs. Jnches. 



I'ort Constituliun, Now Hampshire, 28.85 



Watcrlown Araeiinl, Massachusetts 39.69 



Kort Hamilton. New York, 4.5.71 



Hnncock Hnrrncks. New York 36.92 



Watervliet Arsenal, New York, 34.22 



West Point, New York, 48.70 



