18 NEW AMERICAN ORCHARDIST. 



they do, directly from the ocean, they carry from thence 

 tempestuous storms of rain, with clouds of aqueous vapors, 

 which dissolve the snows of winter and obscure the sun. 



It has been observed that those countries possess a more 

 equal temperature during all the seasons, which have an 

 ocean on the north. Such, precisely, is the position of a 

 considerable portion of the whole of Western Europe. 

 In their passage over the ocean, the cold northern winds 

 become modified, but a very considerable portion of mois- 

 ture is also imbibed, imparting to those countries a cold 

 and chilly atmosphere ; both winter and summer, during 

 a considerable portion of the year, the sun's bright rays, 

 with their soul-reviving influence, are not seen. With us, 

 those northerly winds bring clear and fine skies, and a dry, 

 pure atmosphere, like those more invariable winds from the 

 west. But during winter those same northerly winds bring 

 down from high northern regions, and other climes, an at- 

 mosphere at times the most intensely cold : no moisture 

 comes with them, to dissolve the snows of winter those 

 snows which serve as a covering and as a protection to vege- 

 tation and to the frozen earth, until a late period in the sea- 

 son ; it is from this cause that with us the destructive vernal 

 frosts are not known, or are of but very rare occurrence. 

 Immured in our winters so intensely cold, and so fortu- 

 nately prolonged, vegetation slumbers profoundly secure, 

 nor awakes till the danger is past. 



Elevation above the level of the ocean has the same ef- 

 fect in lowering the mean temperature, as an increase of 

 latitude. Mons. de Candolle has ascertained, by experi- 

 ments on some mountains in France, that the elevation of 

 189 or 200 yards affects the mean temperature in the 

 same proportion as a degree of latitude to the north, on that 

 same meridian, and in a similar proportion for any in- 

 crease of height. 



The growth of trees and plants, in rich, moist soils, and 

 in warm and protected situations, is not only unusually 

 rapid, but is also prolonged to a very late period in autumn, 

 or until suddenly arrested by frost; and the immature 

 wood of a forced growth, being tender, is the more liable 

 to be killed by early frosts and by winter. 



On the other hand, those trees and plants which grow on 

 dry and stony or sandy soils, and on the open plains, and 

 on the hills which are most of all exposed to cold winds, 

 the wood completely matures in due season ; and such 



