Western Orchards. 325 



and West, will agree with my Western friends. But, as we did not set out 

 to discuss the term market-fruits, let it be laid aside for the present, lest 

 the limits of this paper be transcended. 



Influence of Soil and Climate. — Having thus set forth in brief terms the 

 history of AVestern orchards, the sources whence they were derived, 

 some of the mishaps which befell them, and the conclusions reached by 

 the intelligent fruit-growers of the country, let us now inquire what may be 

 some of the causes, which, after an average of twenty years' trial and ob- 

 servation, have forced them to these conclusions. 



First let us consider the entirely different soils in which our orchards 

 are planted. Upon the granite rocks, covered with a drift formation result- 

 ing from the glacial action of a former era upon the primary metamorphic 

 and schistose rocks of the mountain region, there originated varieties of 

 fruits which proved themselves adapted to that soil. These varieties have 

 been removed to soils which rest upon the fertile diluvial drift formation 

 of the West, which covers the horizontal strata of limestones and coal 

 measures. They have been planted also in the rich alluvial deposits of 

 lakes and rivers that have left their traces so manifestly upon our Western 

 plateaux, long after the glacial action had ceased. 



Next we must not overlook the influence of our seasons, nor forget that 

 the climate of an elevated interior basin is necessarily very different 

 from that of a mountain country with its narrow valleys that communicate 

 directly with the ocean, itself calculated to exert a marked influence upon 

 the atmosphere. Our weather may be too variable, with violent and sudden 

 changes of temperature ; the atmosphere may be at times too wet, at other 

 times too dry. South of latitude forty degrees, it is quite probable, that, 

 for many of the Northern varieties of fruits, our season is too long, causing 

 the premature development and maturity of the seeds, and the consequent 

 early decay of the pulpy fruit. 



The result of twenty years' trial with the New-England varieties over a 

 wide extent of Western orchards, and with an experience which has 

 reached more than eighty years in some parts of the Ohio Valley, has shown 

 us that most of the winter varieties of apples become autumn sorts, and 

 are thus of greatly diminished value in the commercial orchard, because 

 they do not keep well into the winter. Of twenty-three kinds introduced 



