MATURITY AND LONGEVITY AS AFFECTED BY CLIMATE 127 



the horizon. As vegetation may partially wilt under the noonday rays, it revives 

 and grows from early evenings till late mornings in the gentle breezes and these 

 refreshing dews. Hence there is no hazard in planting, nor any need of "Job's 

 patience" in waiting for the harvest. Not only may the husbandman reap that he 

 sows, but almost as he sows. Mr. Varmadoe came near Thomasville, Ga., thir- 

 teen years ago, reduced to poverty by the war, stuck a dozen switches cut from a 

 Leconte pear tree in the ground; they grew and have made him and three sons 

 independent — spreading to hundreds of other families in like manner. Peaches, 

 plums and all kinds of fruit, save such as the orange, will bear in one and two 

 years from their seed. The fruit is often seen bending to the earth the little 

 twigs trying to bear it. 



From the unprecedented cold throughout our land, the spring even here 

 was two weeks late. Neverthless, ripe strawberries were in the Jacksonville 

 market the last week of February, and are abundant, as I write, the last day of 

 May, and will be gathered from the same vines on until the last days of June. 

 Mulberry trees growing in our yard have been yielding fruit for t^o weeks, and 

 are yet having a succession of young berries which will continue to ripen for at least 

 five or six weeks longer. So of the dewberry, the blackberry and, in a word, all the 

 berries and fruits maturing in this climate. Though no one specimen may resist 

 decay longer than elsewhere, yet the entire crop lasts much longer. Indeed, while 

 the general law, that quick life and early maturity indicate early death, in this cli- 

 mate races considered all together seem to form exceptions. The luxury of vege- 

 tables fresh from gardens and fruits from groves and orchards may be enjoyed 

 nearly the year round. 



Besides, we find an early fruitage anolagous to the early rapid growth. In 

 a garden near by there are a half-dozen little peach twigs two years from their seeds, 

 each bearing fruit, ripening and which will be ready for the table in a fortnight. 

 In another garden near by is an orange growing on a bud inserted into its stock 

 last October, and as far as can now be seen will, by supporting its weight upon 

 the tender twig, mature for use in due time. These are but fair specimens of 

 the prolific nature of the vegetaole kingdom in this climate. 



The same law as to early maturity and productiveness is found in the animal 

 kingdom. The infinite variety of species common to north and south, small 

 and great, start, grow and mature earlier, in the south, while a few peculiar to 

 the latter clime follow the same fast law. With the sam"e analogy as to size, starting 

 earlier and growing faster, so do animals and vegetable grow larger. The huge 

 trees in the southern and warmer climates are known to all, the larger men and 

 women are observed by many. In Kentucky and Tennessee they are taller than 

 in Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts, while in Alabama, Georgia and 

 Florida the average weight of one kind is above that found in the New England 

 States. That, as we have said, youths in the far South mature eai-Her, there can 

 be no question. Puberty, in Florida and the West Indies, precedes by two or 

 three years man and womanhood as reached in Maine and Nova Scotia. 



