October 7, 1891. 



Garden and Forest. 



479 



to twenty-five gallons of water. The special advantages of 

 the mixture are (1) cheapness ; (2) ease of preparation and ap- 

 plication, and (3) that it can be put up in dry form in small or 

 large packages, making it easy and convenient to handle by 

 the practical man in the field and the store-keeper who may 

 wish to place it on the market. The chief objection to it is 

 that it sometimes burns the foliage. While this drawback 

 may in time be overcome, it is necessary that we know 

 of it, in order that due care may be observed in using the 

 solution. Work on the treatment of this disease is being car- 

 ried on this year by us in the chief Apple-growing sections of 

 the country. As yet it is too early to speak definitely of re- 

 sults, but enough is known to warrant us in saying that many 

 new points will be brought out. The conclusion of the matter 

 is, that, with even moderate care, Apple-scab can be largely 

 prevented in the most badly affected regions at an expense 

 ranging from ten to twenty cents per tree. 



FRUIT DISTRICTS GEOLOGICALLY AND CLIMATICALLY CON- 

 SIDERED. 



Professor E. S. Goff read a carefully prepared paper on this 

 subject. After giving many illustrations of the fact that 

 certain regions, often of very limited area, are specially 

 adapted to certain fruits, the author gave a brief general 

 description of the irregular zones in which tropical and more 

 hardy fruits are found at their best, and continued as follows : 



It is afact of importance to horticulture that, other things being 

 equal, the further north a fruit district is located, the more profit- 

 able is the culture of the fruits to which it is adapted. Competi- 

 tion from the same latitude is not only restricted, but the cost of 

 transported fruits is great. In more delicate fruits, as the rasp- 

 berry, blackberry and strawberry, the lateness of maturing in 

 northern fruit districts shuts out southern competition. In the 

 case of some other fruits, as the apple, the longer days of the 

 more northern clime develops a brilliancy of color that is not 

 found in regions further south. In Wisconsin, successful 

 apple culture is limited to a comparatively few districts, and 

 these are mostly of small extent, yet the profits realized from 

 the few successful orchards surpass those from the finest 

 orchards of western New York. These facts give an added 

 interest to these northern fruit-regions, and invite a study of 

 the causes which serve to locate and circumscribe them. 



Within a few years the eastern shores of Lake Michigan, 

 particularly in the portion south of Grand Haven, have become 

 famous for peaches. On the western shore of the same lake 

 the Peach rarely yields fruit, while a few miles further to the 

 westward only the more hardy varieties of the Apple can be 

 successfully fruited. On the east shore of the lake, however, 

 Apples, and even Peaches, are said to succeed as far north as 

 Mackinaw, which is a degree north of the northern boundary 

 of New York and Vermont. The causes for these differences 

 of climate in a similar latitude, according to Professor Winchell, 

 " must be attributed to the fact that the prevailing winds which 

 bring. frost or severe cold are westerly, reaching the easterly, 

 or Michigan, shore only after having traversed nearly or quite 

 one hundred miles of deep open water, to which, during the 

 warm season, they will have surrendered a very considerable 

 increment of heat, to be retained until it shall be wrestled for 

 and re-absorbed by the colder gales of late autumn and winter, 

 thus quenching their excess of cold by the transfer to them of 

 a portion of the surplus heat of the warm season. ... It is 

 also a fact that a current sets northward along the easterly 

 shore of Lake Michigan, doubtless occasioned by the increased 

 influence of prevalent south-westerly winds upon the waters 

 nearest that shore ; and there is a reverse current along the 

 westerly shore, thus causing a slow but constant transfer of 

 the warm waters of the south toward the northern extremity 

 of the lake, and vice versa, much in the same manner as the 

 tepid waters of the Gulf of Mexico are transmitted by the Gulf 

 Stream to soften the climate of north-western Europe." 



In like manner the southern and eastern shores of Lake 

 Erie and the eastern shore of Lake Champlain present a some- 

 what softened climate as compared with localities more remote 

 from water, making the former district well adapted to the 

 culture of native Grapes, and the latter to that of hardy Apples. 

 Even the smaller lakes of central New York, aided, doubtless, 

 by the larger Lake Ontario to the north, are surrounded by 

 fruit-districts in which varieties of the Grape and Peach suc- 

 ceed that cannot be grown in northern Pennsylvania. Espe- 

 cially is this true of Keuka Lake, on the banks of which frosts 

 hold off until the middle of October, and the Catawba grape 

 ripens to perfection in the average season. The influence of 

 physical features in modifying climate is strikingly shown in 

 California. Here the combined influence of the great Pacific 

 Ocean, with its Japan current washing the coast with waters 



tempered by a tropical sun, and the mountain barriers to the 

 eastward, deflecting the northerly winds, actually cause the 

 isothermal lines, which normally run east and west, to extend 

 north and south. Indeed, in some cases, fruits ripen earlier in 

 the northern than in the southern parts of the state. 



At certain altitudes in the mountain districts of California 

 and elsewhere occur belts of greater or less extent that are 

 singularly free from spring and autumn frosts. These loca- 

 tions have been called " thermal belts," and are peculiarly 

 adapted to fruit-culture. Their altitude secures free circula- 

 tion of air and immunity from violent summer heats, which 

 make them less subject to many fungous diseases than the val- 

 leys beneath, while their almost complete freedom from frost 

 gives them a prolonged growing season. In seasons when 

 premature warm weather in spring is followed by severe frosts, 

 these thermal belts are sometimes conspicuous along the 

 mountain-sides from the lively green of their newly formed 

 foliage, while both above and below the premature growth has 

 been blasted by frost. The presence of these belts has been 

 explained by the merging of the ascending current of warm 

 air from the valleys beneath, with the more rarefied atmos- 

 phere of the mountains. The warm currents ascend until 

 they reach strata of equal rarefication with themselves, where 

 they cease and merge themselves into the existing atmosphere. 



It would seem that the great mountain regions of our west- 

 ern states and territories must abound in these thermal belts, 

 and though comparatively few of them have as yet been de- 

 veloped for fruit-culture, it is not impossible that the golden 

 fruits and rich vintages of this vast mountain system may 

 yet rival in value the outputs of their quartz mills and placers. 



Certain fruits are especially susceptible to certain features 

 of environment. The Cranberry, it is said, cannot endure a 

 soil that contains any considerable admixture of clay or lime. 

 The European wine Grape ( Vitis vinifera) is very sus- 

 ceptible to extremes of atmospheric humidity ; the fruit-buds 

 of the Peach are very susceptible to the cold of winter. The 

 area of successful culture for such fruits is greatly restricted 

 as compared with what it might be but for these special weak- 

 nesses. 



I may add, in conclusion, that the subject of plant adapta- 

 tion should receive much more study than has yet been de- 

 voted to it. It would seem that a thorough study of plant 

 environment in our distinctive fruit regions should enable us 

 to establish a formula by which the adaptability of any given 

 locality for any particular fruit might be determined without 

 resorting to the costly method of experiment. What expense 

 and disappointment might have been saved could it have been 

 determined beforehand that the European Grape could not 

 succeed in the eastern United States ! De Candolle, who has given 

 much study to the geography of plants, was unable to explain 

 their failure from any data that he could procure. Could he 

 have had access to more complete meteorological facts, it is 

 probable that he might have assigned the true cause. This, 

 indeed, is the crying need. I have made some attempt at 

 these studies, but have been disappointed at the meagreness 

 of the available data. It is true that the reports of the signal 

 service have very great value, but before the science of plant 

 adaptation can be fully developed we must have series of ob- 

 servations reaching through years, not only of temperature, 

 humidity, precipitation, cloudiness and wind, but of the inten- 

 sity of sunshine, of soil temperatures and moistures, of the 

 prevalence of fogs and dews ; and we must have these ob- 

 servations not simply from one or two localities in a state, but 

 from every locality that has a specially interesting economic 

 flora. Those who are patiently making laborious observations 

 at our signal service and experiment stations, and who often 

 wonder if their patient labor will ever be appreciated, should 

 take new courage. It is from data of this kind that a new 

 science is to be developed that will prove of vast importance 

 to a future generation. 



FRUIT NOTES FROM CANADA. 



Mr. L. Woolverton, of Grimsby, Ontario, reported some 

 experience with different fruits in Canada, from which we 

 make the following extracts : 



Some standard Apples which were once counted as most 

 valuable from a commercial point of view are now con- 

 demned entirely by many of our leading growers. One of 

 these is the Baldwin, which, for the past few years, has been 

 almost barren. The Early Harvest and Fall Pippin, which 

 were considered our principal summer and fall varieties, are 

 now no longer of value, owing to the apple-scab. Even the 

 Northern Spy and Greening have of late been badly affected 

 with this pest. We feel exceedingly grateful to the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture of the United States for the remedies 



