Climate 179 



developed; and this is what takes place when crops 

 are sown too late in the year. In the ordinary course 

 of nature, seed generally drops and sows itself as soon 

 as it is ripe, and begins to grow forthwith. But it 

 cannot go on growing. Winter comes and checks it, 

 and it is obliged to put off bearing fruit till the following 

 summer. Plants grown in this, the natural way, are 

 generally the stronger, if they manage to survive the 

 winter. But they are exposed to more perils than 

 when the seed is sown in spring, and of course they 

 are much longer in coming to perfection. 



Barley sown early in August and September, as soon 

 as it is ripe, has been found to take two hundred, and 

 two hundred and forty days, to come to perfection, 

 which is just eight times as long as it often does in 

 Egypt, where it is sown and ripened not only the same 

 year, but quite early in the year. 



Provided, however, the seed be not sown too late, 

 the crop seems to be equally good whether the seed be 

 sown in autumn or spring. Barley sown for experiment 

 on the 21st of April came to perfection in eighty-eight 

 days, that is, by the 18th of July ; whereas that sown 

 five weeks later ripened, indeed, in an equal number 

 of days, but prematurely, before the grain was properly 

 developed, because it had been over-stimulated — too 

 much hurried, in fact, during the long, light, warm 

 days of June. 



Of all the influences by which the plant is surrounded, 

 none affect it so powerfully, for good or evil, as light, 

 temperature and moisture, or, in one word, climate. 

 Where the climate is favourable, the quality and 

 quantity of the soil are of comparatively little import- 

 ance, for the plant manages to make the very utmost 



