410 Climate of Eastern atid Middle States ofN. America, 



the articles I have particularised, will, I think, be found 

 undeniable. 



To compare the horticultural products cultivated by arti- 

 ficial means in one country, vv^ith those of any other w^here no 

 such artificial means w^ere necessary to bring the same kinds of 

 products to perfection, would be like comparing the natural 

 climate of Iceland with that of Jamaica; because, in the 

 former, orange trees might be as well cultivated in the green- 

 house, as they are in the open air in the latter. Yet there can 

 be no more justice in denying the superiority of this climate 

 to that of England, for every article it is capable of bringing 

 to perfection more than that of England, than there would 

 be in asserting that, because the orange tree could be grown 

 as well in Iceland as in Jamaica, that therefore the climate of 

 the latter was not superior to that of the former. With the 

 admission of one of these species of reasoning, the whole fra- 

 ternity of horticulturists might as well be transmogrified into 

 a race of funguses altogether. Several communications pub- 

 lished in the Neiso York Farmer and Horticultural Repository, 

 on this subject, display a mode of reasoning more like the 

 effusions of some kind of vegetable than animal production; 

 and, were it not for the lively strain of irritation (not common 

 to vegetables) kept up through the whole discussion, it might 

 be considered more an affair of pumpkins and squashes than 

 the actual bickerings of highly excited horticulturists. The 

 subject, however, of the superiority of the American climate 

 to that of England, for horticulture, is an interesting one ; and 

 being perfectly within the cognizance of the horticulturists of 

 the present day, nothing can be easier than to obtain correct 

 information of the difference between them, by obtaining a 

 list of all those products which, in the natural climate of each, 

 can be raised and grown to perfection, as well as a list of 

 those that require artificial aid to bring them to perfection 

 in the one country, but which, from the superior congeniality 

 of climate in the other, require no such assistance. In the 

 twelfth number of the New York Farmer and Horticidtural 

 Repository I have published a list of thirteen kinds of fruit 

 and vegetables, which are all grown to perfection in the open 

 garden or the field in this climate; the correctness of which 

 statement can be corroborated by every experienced horticul- 

 turist in this country. I have proposed Mr. Buel of Albany 

 as an umpire, if necessary, on the subject ; and to your decision 

 I have submitted the determination whether they can be so 

 cultivated in the natural climate of England : — 



List. — Grape, Peach, Nectarine, Cucumber, Melon, Water 

 Melon, Pumpkin var. Vegetable Marrow, Squash, Indian 

 Corn, Lima Beans, Pepper, Tomatoes, Okra. 



