44 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 



states, also, the plant goes into the winter in a 

 perfectly dormant and ripened condition, and is 

 thereby able to withstand great cold. It has been 

 said that injury from cold is more frequent in 

 the Gulf states than in New York. 



The elevation of any place also stands in close 

 relation to the frostiness of it. Perfectly flat lands 

 are nearly always frosty, because there is no atmos- 

 pheric drainage, a subject to which we shall soon 

 recur. On the other hand, very high lands are also 

 frosty, because the air is drier and rarer, and there- 

 fore allows of rapid radiation of heat from the 

 land; and they are exposed to cold, unbroken winds. 

 The local altitude to which the fruit lands may be 

 carried can be determined only by actual experiment; 

 but in the north the best elevations for the ten- 

 der fruits are usually between 100 and 300 feet 

 above the local rivers or lakes. 



Whilst it is extremely important that the loca- 

 tion for the growing of tender or early -blooming 

 fruit should be selected with reference to its im- 

 munity from disastrous winter temperatures and un- 

 timely frosts, it should also be said that climate is 

 often held responsible for failures which are charge- 

 able to ignorance or neglect. This is particularly 

 well illustrated in the perishing peach -growing of 

 some parts of the north. It is a common complaint 

 that peaches cannot be grown so easily as formerly. 

 The writer has investigated this matter upon the 

 eastern shore of Cayuga Lake, in central New York-* 



*Bull. 74, Cornell Exp. St. 



