232 
THE CULTIVATOR. 
the fact that, though tropical, they are also moun¬ 
tain plants in their own country. Corn and beans 
also exhibit considerable hardiness, but yet are not 
unfrequently a failing crop. The other varieties 
must almost habitually be cultivated with extreme 
care to secure a good crop, and often, with every 
precaution, are a total failure, even when not cut 
off by frost. # 
3d. When started early, in favorable seasons, i. e., 
those that are long, warm and dry, they do well. 
They nearly all require from 15 to 20 weeks to mature 
their fruit, and these weeks must all be comprehended 
within warm weather; the potato and artichoke be¬ 
ing, I believe, the only tropicals that will germinate 
in cool weather, and they, it will be seen, are tu¬ 
bers, and not seed, usually. If then any one sea¬ 
son does not open early enough, and extend far 
enough into the autumn to afford at least fifteen 
weeks of warm weather, the most of tropicals, be¬ 
come a failing crop. Hence it is wise to start the 
more tender sorts in hot-beds in the spring. 
4th. If we wish strong and sure seed of these 
plants, we must see that it ripens in warm weather, 
or, at the very least, the fruit must get its growth 
in such weather. Late planting, or a cold summer 
will be sure to produce seed that is thin and imper¬ 
fect. and of feeble and uncertain vitality. The due 
elaboration of tropical seeds requires heat as an in¬ 
variable law. 
5th. These tropicals are nearly all susceptible 
of a shortened 'period of growth in northern cli¬ 
mates. The first year or two, after tropical plants 
are brought from the south, they are ripened with 
difficulty.. The three plants, noticed above in No. 
1, evinced this. The muskmelon with much difficul¬ 
ty ripened but two fruits on thirty hills; the squash 
did not mature at all; and the potato, at the ap¬ 
proach of late frost, was all in bloom. The seed¬ 
ling tubers of these potatoes did not. acquire, usual¬ 
ly, more than one-fourth the size of other seedlings, 
raised from seed obtained from old home varieties. 
If, with the utmost care, you can get seed fresh from 
the tropics, to ripen one crop of seed, there is al¬ 
ways hope that in subsequent years, it will so much 
contract the period of its growth as to be capable 
of advantageous cultivation, at least after a few 
years. 
6th. In the cultivation of tropical plants, little 
dependance should be placed on seed imported di¬ 
rectly from tropical climates. Not only will its sea¬ 
son of growth be probably too long, as already seen, 
but, from some perhaps inexplicable connection be¬ 
tween plants, and the soil and climate in which they 
grow, they need to be produced from seed grown on 
the soil and in the climate where the plant is to be 
durably cultivated. Hence generally, our chief use 
of seed, brought directly from the tropics, should be 
as a basis of new and strong varieties to be gained 
often, in the first instance, with considerable diffi¬ 
culty,—varieties which, when grown from the first, 
second or third crop of home grown seed, will be 
likely to exhibit plants much better adapted to pe¬ 
culiarities of climate than the originally imported 
seed was, This fact is not confined to tropical 
plants, but it is a law somewhat general in vegeta¬ 
ble physiology. Some of the finest apples and 
peaches of the United States, do not sustain their 
reputation in England, and some other parts of Eu¬ 
rope,—and the reverse. So fine varieties of pota¬ 
toes brought from Wales, England and Scotland, do 
not succeed well here, generally. In our own coun¬ 
try, some varieties of fruit fail of their peculiar qua¬ 
lities, when removed a few miles from the spot on 
which they originated. The seedling potato noticed 
July, 
above in No. 1, though eminently hardy in respect 
to climate, is yet liable to injury from a small black 
flea, as our native varieties are not, and showing the 
need of re-production, in this climate, so as to se¬ 
cure a firmness or other peculiarity of tissue which 
will resist this enemy. 
The foregoing considerations are those that seem 
most important to be noticed on the question of the 
acclimation of tropica] plants. And now,what is the 
result? It is this, and only this. Such plants as can 
ever be cultivated here at all, are capable, by suc¬ 
cessive re-production, of shortening their period of 
maturity, so as to come within the limits of our or¬ 
dinary summers. This is especially true of corn, po¬ 
tatoes, beans and pumpkins. Almost all the others 
frequently fail unless forwarded in hot-beds. It is 
possible also, that the foliage of some tropicals may 
here acquire a greater power of resisting chills than 
they possess in their native country. But I am 
doubtful of even this, since, after having cultivated 
the most tender of these tropicals for many years, 
and often almost by the acre, I have not found any 
tendency to such increased hardiness. 
Any hope then, of ever making these plants ca¬ 
pable of bearing the frost, is as vain as that of con¬ 
verting a bulrush into a cedar of Lebanon; or that 
of accustoming the lion, the camel, and the elephant 
to a northern winter, in common with the deer, the 
wolf, and the fox. 
Our climate presents very wide extremes of tem¬ 
perature, exhibiting at once the summer heats of 
Spain and Italy, and the wintry cold of Sweden. 
The heat of our summers, beklg thus nearly tropic¬ 
al, is found quite sufficient to mature such tropical 
plants as are accommodated to their length. 
Hence,although vegetation starts later in the spring, 
and closes earlier in the autumn, than in England, 
its progress in midsummer is so much more rapid, in 
consequence of its intense heat, that tropical plants 
mature here, and produce fruit, equal to that of 
southern climes,—fruit that will not grow at all in 
England, Holland, and the north of France. 
It is most unfortunate for the science of agricul¬ 
ture, that we have, so far as rny acquaintance ex¬ 
tends, no well written treatise on the cultivation of 
tropical plants. So low is the state of society in 
all the states of tropical regions, that the people do 
not know the capabilities of the soil and climate 
which they possess, nor the susceptibility of im¬ 
provement inherent in their fruits and vegetables. 
Hence, with soil and climate so much inferior, we 
yet cultivate melons, tomatoes, squashes, &c., in 
size and flavor, decidedly superior to the same fruits 
cultivated there. Many of tjjese plants, as varie¬ 
ties of the bean, pepper, squash and nasturtion, are 
known to be there biennial, and some even peren¬ 
nial. There is some reason also to suspect that the 
tomato, and some sorts of melons, are more than an¬ 
nual, when cultivated in their native climes. 
It will be seen that the preceding remarks are ap¬ 
plicable especially to central New-York, but the 
leading principles of this article are applicable to all 
northern climes, whose summer heat compares at 
all with ours. 
The preceding illustrations have been confined to 
herbaceous plants, and mostly to such as are techni¬ 
cally . sailed vegetables, but the principles apply 
equally well to fruits growing on wood stems, such 
as the peach, and the grape especially, which are 
semi-tropical in character;—and also remotely to 
the cultivation of the apple, pear, apricot and 
quince. 
The above facts are hastily thrown out, in the 
hope that some one favorably situated will pursue 
