JUM: 



WESTERN ORCHARDS. 



In presenting to your notice the condition of the orchards in the West- 

 ern country, it is necessary that you bear in mind the vast extent of territor}- 

 embraced in the area of our great interior valley. You must also consider 

 the varying soils that are spread over its wide surface, and at the same 

 time take note of the different conditions of climate which must exist over 

 an extent of eight degrees of latitude and twenty of longitude, modified 

 as they are, too, by their altitude above the level of the sea, by inequalities 

 of surface, by elevations and depressions, by great bodies of timber-lands, 

 wide areas of open steppes, and by broad sheets of water. 



All these conditions are so totally different from those that exist in the 

 limited area of New England, and the eastern slopes of the Alleghanies, 

 near the sea-board, that we should hardly expect to find the fruits of one 

 region succeeding in the other. And yet these circumstances have been 

 overlooked by those who have planted orchards since the first settlement 

 of the country. W^ithin the great extent of territory above alluded to, 

 there are local differences, requiring especial selections for each ; but there 

 are also certain general conditions that apply alike to all. 



4» 32X 



VOL. I. 



