34 Notes ajid Glcaniiigs. 



have brought me to a different conclusion, I proceed to state the reasons that 

 have led to its adoption. 



I presume it will be admitted that soil and climate exercise a powerful, if not 

 a paramount, influence upon the vigor and growth of plants, as well as upon the 

 perfecting their fruit ; and that, where the soil and climate are most congenial to 

 them, such can be most successfully cultivated, and their fruits produced in the 

 greatest perfection. 



At present, I set aside all considerations arising from a difference of soil. 

 [ suppose that a difference does exist in that of the two regions referred to ; 

 the rocks of one being generally limestone, as those of the other are granite : 

 but as I do not know the extent of this difference, or exactly in what it consists, 

 I leave it out of the account, and assume t-hat there is nothing in the soil of 

 either that presents any serious obstacle to successful cultivation. With respect 

 to the climate, however, it seems to me very different. 



The climate of Massachusetts, and of all the north-eastern parts of the United 

 States, is harsh and severe. The winters are long, with ot'ten intense cold. It 

 is not unusual for the mercury, by Fahrenheit's scale, to fall to twelve or fifteen 

 degrees below zero, and in exposed places still lower ; for the earth to be 

 frozen to a depth of three feet or upwards, and ice to be formed of fifteen inches 

 in thickness ; while sometimes, but not always, during the most inclement 

 weather, a covering of snow affords some protection against its effects. The 

 intense cold, however, is not continuous : periods of mild weather often occur, 

 sometimes of sufficient duration to melt the snow and ice, and extract most of 

 the frost from the ground, followed again by severe cold. If the winter is cold, 

 the summer is often correspondingly hot ; the mercury not unfrequently rising 

 to 90° or upwards in the shade ; the period of great heat occasionally accom- 

 panied by dry weather, when no rain, unless it may be a slight shower, falls for 

 weeks in succession, creating drought, that bakes and dries the earth to a great 

 depth, and burns and blasts the foliage, so that it ceases to perform its appro- 

 priate functions, — the summer, no more than the winier, being free from sudden 

 and great changes of temperature. Now, this is, as I believe, a very unfavora- 

 ble climatic condition to successful cultivation. The excessive cold of winter is 

 the cause of mucli damage. It is a common opinion, and though not, perhaps, 

 literally exact, substantially true, that the peach-buds are destroyed when the 

 mercury falls to ten degrees below zero ; and I am inclined to think that the 

 injury to young trees, that exhibits itself in the spring, distinguished as blight, 

 fire-blight, frozen sap-blight, or like name, is the result of excessive cold in the 

 preceding winter. The changes of temperature in the winter by freezing and 

 thawing, and the consequent contraction and expansion of the ground, cause 

 much injury by the lifting and heaving young trees, to the damage of the tender 

 fibres and rootlets ; sometimes throwing the roots entirely out of the soil, and 

 then causing the destruction of the tree. The great heat of summer, especially 

 when attended by severe drought, is also not without injurious consequences, 

 that, if not permanent in their effects, require more than one favorable season 

 to wholly obviate. 



Now, these evils from climate are those from which that of Europe is com- 



