No. 151.] , 237 



been acclimated in Louisiana so that they get three or four feet of 

 saccharine matter if the crop be secured before frost. I doubt not 

 there are in tropical and boreal climates many plants which may be 

 easily and profitably acclimated in our country. We cannot expect 

 any very important new discoveries in the animal and mineral king- 

 doms; we are intimately acquafnted with land animals and minerals; 

 aquatic regions can at best yield us little else than oil; but so exten- 

 sive and important is the vegetable kingdom, that if all animals, 

 (man excepted,) were destroyed, we should have an abundance left 

 for our sustenance. We know that many of our valuable plants are 

 natives of far distant regions; for instance, the mulberry, which was 

 originally a native of a small province in Southern India; thence it 

 came up the Persian Gulf, through Palmyra, (Solomon's famous Tad- 

 mor in the Desert,) passed luined Babylon and Nineveh, spread over 

 luxurious Persia, came along the iEgean and Mediterranean, and 

 finally reached Rome. A wandering monk, whose pilgrimage had 

 been in the east, brought to Constantinople, in the top of his staff, 

 a few seeds of the mulberry, and eggs of the silk-worm, where (in 

 Europe,) they were first planted. Thence came they to Italy and 

 France. Now look at the immense value of the silk business in 

 those countries. See our valuable animal, the sheep, as it were, put 

 out of jsountenance by that insignificant worm brought by the wan- 

 dering monk from far A.sia. This is an instance of acclimation. 

 Theoretically I query thus: In India they have a tree and a worm 

 which produces this valuable silk, this gorgeous velvet, this magnifi- 

 cent satin. Can I raise them in Massachusetts? Undoubtedly no, is 

 the response. But they and other valuable products of the opposite 

 zones, may gradually be taught to grow in our climate. This expe- 

 rimental garden we must have; and if we move energetically in the 

 matter, we can have it — we will have it. 



Mr. Meigs mentioned, as a singular fact, that the island of Japan 

 would not produce a potato. He said that in Algeria, the French 

 government have an experimental garden in successful operation, in 

 which one may find torrid and frigid plants side by side, a medley of 

 the vegetable kingdom from all parts of the world. 



Gen. Mercer said we must not expect too rapid progress in accli- 

 mating plants. There is great affinity between the vegetable and 

 animal kingdoms; and of the latter, negroes have been a hundred 

 and fifty years in this country, yet they are not so well acclimated 

 but that they generally feel and thrive better when transported to the 

 burning climate of Africa. The first magnolia grandiflora he ever 



