32 AMERICAN HUSBANDRY. 



ature than. maize, and is not adapted to a hot, dry 

 cUmate. Great Britain is therefore one of the best 

 wheat countries on the globe, and perhaps produces, 

 in proportion to the land in tillage, a greater amount 

 than any other. The low temperature and moist 

 climate of England is found to agree with this plant 

 perfectly. Scotland is too cold ; but no part of the 

 island is too hot, as is the case with a considerable 

 portion of our Southern states. 



To this difference of climate must be attributed 

 the difficulty we have found in the United States in 

 growing hedges from such shrubs or trees as are 

 used in Kngland for this purpose. From witnessing 

 their excellent effect and beautiful appearance there, 

 it was perfectly natural that we should adopt the 

 same plants for the same object here ; but, after the 

 repeated and persevering efforts of fifty years, it 

 may be questioned whether there are five miles of 

 tolerable hedge, from imported varieties of thorn or 

 holly plants, in the United States. The difference 

 between tlie moist, temperate, and equable climate 

 of England, and the hot, dry, variable climate of this 

 country, seems to have been overlooked ; when a rec- 

 ollection of this fact would have convinced" any one 

 acquainted with the physiology of plants that our 

 seasons must be fatal to English hedges. Whether 

 there are any of our native plants that will supply 

 this desideratum, remains to be seen. 



The worst effect which our variable climate and 

 intense cold have on our agriculture, when compared 

 with that of England, is their influence on our 

 wheat-crop. Such a thing as winter-killed wheat is 

 scarcely known in that country ; while in many 

 parts of this, especially where clay predominates, 

 wheat in all winters is more or less liable to injury, 

 and in some years has more than two thirds perish- 

 ed. The heaving out of the roQts of wheat and clo- 

 ver plants by the expansion of frost, and which is 

 here the most fatal in the spring of the year, when 



