36 
FLOKA OF THE SOUTH. 
ical rains, as on the Pacific slope, but tliey are irregularly- 
distributed throughout all the seasons of the year. 
Dews. — In the dry periods of summer and autumn a 
compensation for the want of rain is made by the copious 
dews. During the day the earth receives an immense amount 
of heat from the sun. At sunset it begins the work of ra- 
diation, and carries it on rapidly during the night until it 
becomes a vast condenser, receiving, in literal showers, 
moisture from the atmosphere which refreshes all vegeta- 
tion. The cotton fields rejoice, and the heart of the 
planter is gladdened. 
Frosts. — The season of frosts and freezing weather, in 
the larger part of the cotton region, begins about the mid- 
dle of October, and terminates about the middle of March. 
Our agricultural period embraces seven months, but it is 
deemed prudent to defer the planting of cotton until about 
the middle of April, allowing full time for the earth to be- 
come thoroughly warm, and giving six months for the plant- 
ing, cultivation, and maturing of the crop. 
Cotton is a plant of the sun, and requires his genial 
rays for half the year. It is for this reason that we con- 
fidently predict that aU experiments north of the 36th 
parallel of latitude — isothermal of 60° — will fail. 
We advise Illinois farmers to let cotton alone, and to 
give their attention to stock and grain. 
SECT, v.— PRODUCTIONS OF THE FOREST— FLORA OF 
THE SOUTH. 
We are indebted to Wailes's " Eeport on the Agriculture 
and Geology of Mississippi " for the following catalogue of 
trees, shrubs, herbs, and flowers. The flora of the other 
States does not differ materially from that of Mississippi. 
