Soil, Manures, Situation, and Enclosures, 49 



but partially expanded ; and where the trees stood in a valley, 

 twenty feet deep, all the leaves had been frosted, and were black and 

 dead, up to the level of the banks on each side, while all above the 

 surface of this lake of cold air were fresh and green. 



During the cold of a clear winter night some years ago, whk h 

 sank the thermometer several degrees below zero, after the peach- 

 buds had been swelled by a few warm days, trees which stood on a 

 hill thirty feet higher than the neighboring "creek valley, lost nine- 

 tenths of their blossoms ; while on another hill sixty feet high, nine- 

 tenths escaped. The lake of cold air which covered the top of the 

 smaller hill did not reach the summit of the larger. 



The cultivation of the peach is rarely attempted in the southern 

 tier of counties in the State of New York. Proofs are not wanting, 

 however, that it might be entirely successful on selected ground. A 

 number of instances have been observed where peach orchards, 

 planted on the dry lands of the hills in different parts of this region, 

 have flourished and bore regularly ; at the same time that orchards in 

 the warm valleys below rarely yielded crops, and the trees them- 

 selves were sometimes destroyed. 



These cases show the importance of elevated sites. A dry, firm 

 soil is, however, of great consequence. The influence of a compact 

 knoll, rising but slightly above the rest of the field, has been 

 observed to save from frost the corn which grew upon it ; while on 

 the more mucky or spongy portions of the rest of the field, radiat- 

 ing heat more freely, the crop has been destroyed. Cultivators of 

 drained swamps have found it necessary to plant such lands with 

 tender crops two or three weeks later in spring than the usual period 

 on upland. The successful cultivation of the peach and the grape, 

 on the gently swelling hills called mounds, in the western prairies, 

 while the crops are destroyed on the adjacent dark and porous soils 

 of the plains, affords another example. Sometimes the effect of 

 unfavorable soil more than over-balances that of situation. In some 

 of the hilly parts of western New York, where the highest land is 

 peaty, spongy, or springy, and the valleys dry and firm, the latter are 

 found best for the peach. 



The preceding facts furnish strong reasons for believing that, in 

 large portions of the Northern States, where the cultivation of the 

 peach has been entirely relinquished in consequence of the only 

 attempts having been made in the warm valleys, abundant crops 

 might be regularly obtained by a proper selection of soil and locality. 

 Even much further south, the occasional destruction of tender fruits 

 points out the great importance of careful attention to situation. 



