[XII] 



All experienced nursery men and fruit-growers, have learned to 

 dread its exhausting influences especially, upon giape vines and other 

 broad leaved plants, and they too are aware of the fact, which com- 

 paratively few ordinary observers seem to have noticed, that its 

 effects in giving a general trend of the spray and branches of 

 trees in exposed situations towards the N. E., is so marked that no 

 one who has learned to observe it, need ever be long at a loss to 

 know the points of the compass in any parts of the country. 



The fact, however, that we have it in our power to guard against the 

 evil effects of this wind by artificial means, is not so generally 

 known as it should be, and it was only after many years observa- 

 tion and experience that I came to a full realization of certain facts 

 in connection with its action, which have a most important bearing 

 upon the question of forest culture. 



I became aware, many years since, that many shrubs, trees and 

 plants would grow and thrive at Newport, E. I., and at Yarmouth, 

 Nova Scotia, which in the interior were only found much farther 

 south, and would certainly perish if removed to the latitude of those 

 towns. The reason assigned in both cases was the wanning influ- 

 ence of the neighboring gulf stream, which seemed a plausible ex- 

 planation in which my faith remained unshaken for years, until I 

 went to Chicago, where I found it was impossible to grow many of 

 the finer fruits, and some of the forest trees which elsewhere are 

 found in much higher latitudes. Neither peaches or grapes can be 

 grown at Chicago, or at any other point on the western side of the 

 lake without artificial protection, and the native growth of wood is 

 very meagre, and many varieties which elsewhere are found much 

 farther north, as the beech and the hemlock cannot be grown; yet 

 the eastern shore of the lake, only sixty miles distant, has no supe- 

 rior in the whole country as a fruit growing region. Peaches, grapes, 

 strawberries, etc., grow most luxuriantly anywhere on that shore up 

 to the northern extremity of the lake, three hundred miles north of 

 Chicago, and every variety of forest tree indigenous to the country 

 is found in the best condition of vigorous health. 



There is no gulf stream to account for this difference, but the 

 relative position towards the lake of the whole extent of its fruitful 

 shore is the same as that of Newport and Nova Scotia towards the 

 ocean. In both cases the S. W. wind reaches the shore after pass- 

 ing for a long distance over water, and instead of burning and ex- 

 hausting vegetation with a breath of fire, it comes laden with the 

 moisture it has gathered up in its passage, and brings health and 

 strength upon its wings, instead of disease and death. Further 

 reflection served to convince me that the rule was susceptible of 

 much wider application, and serves to explain the different vegeta- 

 tion of the eastern and western shores of great continents in the 

 same parallels of latitude. Central Spain and southern Italy the 

 lands of the orange and grape are in the same latitude as Boston, 

 and going west on the same parallel to California, we again find 

 ourselves surrounded with fruits and plants which in Boston can only 

 be grown under glass. Continuing our western flight across the 

 Pacific, we find the flora of Eastern Asia to bear, in many respects, 

 a striking resemblance to that of Eastern America. 



