SCIENCE. LVol. VII., No. 154 



60 



aries of private claims, — often a difficult task, 

 owing to their distance from shore. 



The laws relating to shell-fish, passed since the 

 date of the last report, are appended. The only 

 one of general importance makes the rights to 

 oyster-grounds personal estate, and not realty, in 

 settling property of deceased owners. 



The example of the state of Connecticut, in full 

 accordance with the business sagacity which char- 

 acterizes her citizens, might well be followed by 

 other states even more deeply interested in oyster- 

 culture. The natural beds of Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia are being rapidly destroyed for commercial 

 purposes, and only a prompt attention to the 

 subject can secure their rescue from impending 

 destruction. 



DATE OF VINTAGE. 



M. Angot contributes a long discussion of the 

 date of vintage in France to the annals of the 



Fig. i. 



Jin mm central meteorologique for 1883, issued with 

 date of 1885. His data for some stations reach back 

 to the fourteenth century, and, for a good number, 

 back well into the eighteenth century. His con- 

 clusions may be briefly summarized as follows : 

 1°. The date of vintage varies greatly from year 

 to year, and may in a single country differ by 

 more than seventy days in different years. 2 r . 

 The date of maturity depends chiefly on the vines 

 having received ;i certain quantity of heat, well 

 determined for each species. Slight variations 

 in the mean date of vintage are found ; but these 

 variations are nnlike in neighboring regions, and 



they show no persistent deterioration of climate. 

 4°. No relation is found between the date of vin- 

 tage and the sun-spot cycle. 5°. Abundant vin- 

 tages occur in rather warm years, with nearly 

 normal rainfall : they are less dependent on a con- 

 currence of favorable conditions than on the 

 absence of frosts, hail, diseases of the vines, etc. 

 6°. Years of good wine have a notable high tem- 

 perature from June to September, and generally 

 a slightly deficient rainfall. 7°. Years of poor 

 wine are cool in the summer, with rain a little 

 above the normal. Since 1880, detailed obser- 

 vations have been made on the vintage in France, 

 and in future it will be regularly discussed. 



The accompanying cuts are reduced from An- 

 got's plates. Fig. 1 shows the budding of the 

 vine in spring-time, as determined by the arrival 

 of the mean diurnal temperature of 9° C. (48° F.). 

 which is provisionally accepted as the time of the 

 beginning of its vegetation. The position of this 

 isotherm for every ten days of February, March. 



Fig. 2. 



and April, is given by heavy lines ; for some 

 intermediate dates, by finer lines. The epoch of 

 vintage in the autumn is similarly expressed in 

 Fig. 2. 



The same author has also attacked the distribu- 

 tion of heat on the earth as directly furnished by 

 the sun, giving the basis of what Hann calls the 

 solar climate. Meech is most frequently quoted 

 on this question, and Ferrel has lately discussed 

 it ; Angot adds the consideration of various co- 

 efficients of atmospheric transparence, and thus 

 makes a step from the theoretical towards the 

 actual. For example : according to Meech, the 



