AGRICULTURE OF ENGLAND AND AMERICA. 31 



660, and 65°. The average difference between the 

 highest and the lowest temperature per month will 

 not exceed more than six or eight degrees, those 

 sudden and extreme changes to which our climate 

 is subject being unknown there. In the valley of 

 the Genesee, near Lake Ontario, the average for the 

 three winter months gives about 24^, 26^, and 36°, 

 and for the three summer months, 71^, 73^, and 72°; 

 The mean average of several years is 49^, and the 

 range of the thermometer about 100^. In this coun- 

 try we have changes of from 30^ to 403 in twenty- 

 four hours : there the greatest rarely exceeds six or 

 eight. There, also, the thermometer seldom de- 

 scends but a few degrees below the freezing point . 

 while here it is below for weeks or months togeth 

 er. Indeed, it is probable that, in the colder parts 

 of the United States, the thermometer falls below 

 zero as often as it does in England below 32°. 



This statement will show that there must be a 

 material difference between the agricultural opera- 

 tions proper to two countries so situated, as far as 

 those operations can be affected by chmate. To 

 give a single instance : Indian com, it is ascertained, 

 cannot be grown in any country where the thermom- 

 eter for more than one month is not above 70° ; and 

 that in a temperature of 75° or 80° it arrives at its 

 greatest perfection. This is the reason Avhy, not- 

 withstanding all the efforts made to introduce corn 

 into Great Britain, it has proved a complete failure. 

 It is not killed with the frost there as here : but the 

 degree of heat will not bring it to maturity during 

 the summer months. ^Ir. Cobbett was confident he 

 should succeed, and did srrow some tolerable crops 

 of early Canadian ; but. like some trees which flour- 

 i.sh and mature their seeds here, but will not ripen 

 in England, the corn would not in all cases mature 

 so as to vegetate, and, in spite of his boastings, he 

 was compelled to abandon the culture. On the con- 

 trary, wheat is a crop that requires a lower temper- 



