THE SOUTHERN PLANTER; 



BeboteD to ^grtculture, igottCcuiturc, unD the ffiouBthollt erts. 



Agriculture is the nursing mother of the Arts. 



Xenophon. 



Vol. III. 



CLIMATE, 



We have once or twice called the attention 

 of our readers to the American edition of the 

 " Farmer's Encyclopedia." We observe that 

 an article in this work upon the subject of " the 

 influence of climate on the fruitfulness of plants," 

 has provoked thunders of indignation from some 

 of our southern cotemporaries, and they do not 

 hesitate to denounce the whole work as unwor- 

 thy of southern patronage, because of the libel 

 perpetrated on the South. The objectionable 

 article is peculiar to the reprint, and has been 

 adopted into it from a number of the "American 

 Journal of Geology and Natural Science;" the 

 author is understood to be the American Geolo- 

 gist, Mr. Featherstonaugh. The position taken, 

 is, that " the cultivated plants yield the greatest 

 products near the northernmost limit in which 

 they will grow." To support this visionary 

 notion of a very visionary gentleman, various 

 ingenious arguments and statements are resorted 

 to. The latter are certainly gross misconcep- 

 tions of facts ; many of them, it is true, are of 

 a very vague and indefinite character, but some 

 of them are more precise and tangible. For 

 instance, he speaks of the neighborhood of Phi- 

 ladelphia as being the latitude for melons. Sure- 

 ly the author had never eaten a watermelon or 

 canteleup in Virginia, or he would never have 

 ventured upon such an assertion. To be sure, 

 the old maxim says, de guslibus r non est disputan- 

 dum, there is no disputing about taste ; there- 

 fore, the opinion of no one individual on this 

 subject is to be preferred to another ; hence we 

 do not hesitate to oppose our own to that of 

 the celebrated Mr. Featherstonaugh. Our op- 

 portunity for judging has probably been much 

 greater than any he could have enjoyed. We 

 have been in the habit for many years of paying 

 annual visits to the North, and generally at that 

 season when our melons have past, and theirs 

 have just come into the market. Now, if we 

 know a delicious, delicate fruit from a cold, in- 

 sipid one, we may be trusted in saying, that 

 Vol. III.— 34 



Tillage and Pasturage are the two breasts of the 

 State. — Sully. 



No. 12. 



there is no comparison between the flavor of 

 the northern melon, grape, and peach, and those 

 that are raised in Virginia. Personally we are 

 not acquainted with those that grow farther 

 south, but have always imagined them to be 

 even superior to our own. How is it with to- 

 bacco, one of the plants that our author alludes 

 to in support of his theory ? Its acknowledged 

 perfection is attained in the region of Virginia, 

 yet it grows, and is cultivated, as far north as 

 Connecticut. 



To various climates Providence has undoubt- 

 edly assigned various plants and fruits; and the 

 greatest number of these will be found in those 

 latitudes that lie between the two extremes ; or, 

 in other words, in the temperate zone. There 

 is one circumstance that has, we think, served 

 to mislead Mr. Featherstonaugh in his conclu- 

 sions upon this subject. It is very true that 

 plants have been gradually progressing north- 

 wards, and we believe the day is not very dis- 

 tant when melons and peaches may be grown 

 to great perfection in Pennsylvania and further 

 north ; but it will be when these regions ex- 

 change the furs of winter for the mantle of 

 summer. Let them not despair ; frigida Gallia, 

 is now translated "sunny France," and the 

 clearing of forests and the opening of the earth 

 are gradually extending equatorial warmth and 

 fruitfulness into their inhospitable regions. 



Upon the whole, we look upon this as a la- 

 bored, and perhaps excusable, effort in a citizen 

 of the North to persuade his countrymen of the 

 existence of advantages which their rapid emi- 

 gration to the South proved them to be ignorant 

 of. But our Southern friends have shown them- 

 selves far too sensitive upon this subject, and by 

 their extravagant and unjust denunciations of 

 the excellent work into which it has been incor- 

 porated, they have given a notoriety and an im- 

 portance to the article, which its intrinsic merits 

 would never have commanded for it. 



We cannot close these remarks, already too 

 long for the subject, without noticing an opinion 



C. T. BOTTSj Editor. 



RICHMOND, DECEMBER, 1843. 



