DESCRIPTION OF THE COASTAL PLAIN REGION. 11 



While these soils may not contain as large a supply of reserve plant 

 food as some other types they are generally productive. Their 

 physical properties are such as to favor deep penetration by the roots 

 of growing plants, thus giving the plants a relatively large feeding 

 area. The soil also responds readily to the application of com- 

 mercial plant foods. It may be said in comparison with the average 

 growth made by trees in other apple-growing sections that in the more 

 important sections of this region they develop a good amount of wood 

 growth and are relatively long lived. 



The capillarity of the soil is strong, and the character of the sub- 

 soil makes it a deep reservoir for the storing of moisture. While 

 this may pass off readily through surface evaporation under some 

 conditions, it can be largely conserved by thorough cultivation. It 

 is seldom that crops suffer more from lack of moisture here, under 

 proper management, than in other sections having a similar amount 

 of precipitation but more compact types of soil. 



CLIMATE. 



The climate of a place affects the plant life growing therein in many 

 ways. In some one or more of its elements it is the most potent 

 determinant of plant growth. Climate is an exceedingly complex 

 influence, and the numerous combinations of the factors which con- 

 stitute it render its effect upon plant life difficult in the extreme to 

 interpret. 



Each of these factors, as it is manifested in the climate of a place, 

 acts in a particular way upon the varieties of apples, as of other 

 forms of plant life, which may be grown there. The manner in which 

 a variety responds to the influence of these factors, singly or in com- 

 bination with one another, determines what the effect of the climate 

 is upon that variety, and therefore its relative adaptability to partic- 

 ular purposes in that region so far as the climatic factor is concerned. 



In its influence upon vegetation of all kinds, climate may be 

 resolved into a number of elements of which the following are the 

 most important : a 



(1) Precipitation (rain and snow) . 



(2) Temperature (from day to day, and the mean). 



(3) Extremes of heat and cold. 



(4) Time and frequency of frost. 



(5) Amount and intensity of sunshine. 



(6) Humidity and transparency of the atmosphere. 



(7) Direction and velocity of wind. 



(8) Perhaps the electrification of the atmosphere. 



It will thus be seen that climate is more than a matter of tempera- 

 ture and moisture, as popularly applied, though these factors are 



a See Encyclopedia Americana, under "Climate." 

 194 



