FRUIT REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES.

"The apple crop of western New York for 1865 was large. The fine weather of September and October was very favorable for perfecting the fruit, and the increased size attained thereby, it is said, added several thousand barrels to the aggregate. Prices ruled high, from four dollars to five dollars per barrel, and many farmers realized more from a few acres in orchard, with little labor, than from all the toil and expense bestowed upon the remainder of their farms. The shipments from one village on the Central railroad, eighteen miles west of Roches ter, amounted to nearly 28,000 barrels. One grower alone furnished 15,000 barrels this year. Last year (1864) the same grower supplied from 9,000 to 10,000 barrels, while in 1863 the same orchard produced 35,000 barrels of apples." The apple crop in New England having proved a total failure in 1865, prices were accordingly much enhanced, and the profits of the fruit-growers of western New York greatly increased thereby.

In warm, sheltered situations, within a short distance of the shores of Lake Ontario and the minor lakes, peaches are sometimes produced in great quantities, rivalling, in appearance at least, those of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. The crop, however, ripens late, and it is not until the middle of September that they are abundant. In 1855 nearly $100,000 worth of peaches were raised in New York, much the larger proportion of which were grown on Lake Ontario, and near the lakes Seneca and Cayuga.

That the extraordinary influence of the lakes is limited mainly to the valley in which they lie, is shown by the following sketch of the climate of Canada adjoining thereto, extracted from "Eighty Years' Progress of British America:" "The western peninsula of Canada has its climate greatly modified by the vast lakes which almost surround it. The valley of the St. Lawrence below Kingston, as far as tide-water, is removed from this ameliorating influence. The north shores of Lakes Huron and Superior, and the back country north of a line extending from Lake Huron to Ottawa, and removed from the influences of the great lakes, possess a very rigorous climate, in which the intense winter cold, prolonged through many months, is followed by a short, hot summer, succeeded by genial autumn months."

TEMPERATURE OF LAKE ONTARIO.

It is proposed to demonstrate, from instrumental observation, the influence of these waters upon fruit-growing. The illustrations will suffice for all of the districts near the northern lakes, with some modifications dependent on their extension, inclination, size, and latitude.

The most complete series of observations on the temperature of the lake waters are those made by request of Prof. Dewey, from the mouth of the Genesee river, on the south side of Lake Ontario, to Coburg on the Canada side, distant, perhaps, fifty-five miles, and nearly opposite on the north. They may be found in the American Journal of Science, (Silliman's,) vol. 33, p. 402. That extended and systematic examinations of the temperature of the lakes at various depths and positions, and at successive dates throughout the growing season, have not been made by the many intelligent and educated local horticulturists, is surprising.

The following observations were made on water drawn from the depth of one foot. The temperature of the water from a depth of three feet was not, however, sensibly different from that taken from near the surface.

A table exhibiting the temperature of the water of Lake Ontario at one foot beneath the surface, and of the air adjacent, from May to November, 1837.

The accompanying curves of temperature for each series of observations, conducted across the lake, will exhibit the variations in the heat of the surface-waters as the season advances.

Thus from May 15 to August 9, the temperature at the mouth of the Genesee, where the waters from the land predominate, is higher than at any station across the lake, or on the Canadian shore. At the second station, half a mile from the mouth of the Genesee, where its waters are well mingled with those of the lake, the temperature in May rapidly declines to 45°, and continues to descend, for thirteen miles beyond, until it reaches 37°, which it retains with a very slight rise to 38°, 394, and 40°, to within, perhaps, fifteen miles of the Canadian shore, when it suddenly rises to 52°. On May 15th and 22d, a close parallelism is maintained throughout the line of observations, showing that the warming influences of the sun's rays upon the land waters have not reached their highest activity. By June 19, this action has begun to show its effects on the shore waters, though those in mid-lake are yet scarcely changed. This central channel is chilled, no doubt, by the influx of the cold waters of the upper lakes, and the accumulations of ice near the outlet of Lake Erie, which frequently do not disappear until some time in May. The shallow waters of Lake Erie, which are closed to navigation in December, and continue more or less frozen until March or April, have an effect in retarding the "warming up" of Ontario to a marked degree. These cooling agencies removed, the action of the ordinary law of heat, exchange, and restoration of equlibrium comes into action. On July 15, the shore waters, for thirteen miles out, are nearly as warm as those but half a mile distant, where they suddenly descend to 53°, a fall of 10° in seven miles. This they retain with slight decline until on approaching the northern shore they rise to 58°, and reach 59° at Coburg. The curves of temperature taken across the lake are thus losing, at every new series of observations, their extreme curvature, and becoming more rectilinear, until, in August, they are but slightly deflected in mid-lake from the average temperature for that month entirely across. August, a maximum has been reached at the mouth of the Genesee river of 73°, and 70° half a mile distant therefrom, though at Coburg the highest water temperature is now but 63°, thus giving at the height of summer ten degrees of warmth to the New York, over that of the Canadian shore. The temperature of the air by day, is, however, nearly the same at these places through June, July, and August, descending, in mid-lake, 14° in June, 5° in July, and but 2° in August above the measure observed on the extremities of the line near the shores.

In

A reverse order of changes takes place in autumn. In early September the temperature on the southern shore declines nearly 10° below that of August, and retains this lower measure of 4° to 7° until within twenty miles of the Canada shore, where it has declined less rapidly, and is 1° higher at Coburg than in early August. In October, or by the 16th of that month, a greater change has come over the curve of temperature across the lake, as noted at the surface. The waters of the Genesee are now 5° colder than the lake half a mile distant, and 7° colder than waters seven miles therefrom. This temperature of 53° or 54° at seven miles distant, they retain beyond the middle of the lake, and decline gradually to 52° and 51° on the northern shore, maintaining thus, a nearly uniform temperature from side to side.

In the middle of November the surface waters throughout have an average temperature of 45°, varying but 14° from this mean, and that at the mouth of the Genesee, is 1° lower than on the Canadian side.

The temperature of the air in contact with the waters of Lake Ontario varied, of course, according to the prevailing winds. In May the air over the mid-lake was 14° to 16° higher than the surface waters; in June, 3° to 14°; in July, 9' to 10°; in August, about 8°; in September, 0° to 3°, and in October, 0° to 5°, while in November the waters stood 6° to 10° in mid-lake, and 14° higher than

in

the air above them over much of the remaining distance to near the northern shore. The highest atmospheric heats were in August, 73° and 74°, while the waters were but 66° and 69°, with a southwest wind; the lowest, 32°, November, near the northern shore, while the waters were then 46° at the surface. An exceptional high temperature of 77° is recorded in May at half a mile from the Genesee, though the waters were then 46° and the mean for the day 59°, and that of the air at the river's mouth but 66°; this may be erroneous. The foregoing will serve to interpret the diagram of curves of temperature regarded as progressing geographically across the lake. The following explains the relative changes which take place at each station as time advances through the season: From May 15 to May 22, one week only, a rapid rise is noted at the mouth of the Genesee, from 60° to 68°, followed by a decline to 63° in the middle of June, which last is due to the influx of the colder waters of the upper. lakes. By July 15 the temperature has ascended to that of May 22, and advances in August to 73°, which is not reached at any other station; declines now rapidly to the middle of September, and precipitately thence to the middle of October, when it has reached 47°, and to 44° in November, when observations ceased.

A general résumé may conclude this extended and detailed elucidation of the lake and air temperatures and their mutual relations. In winters the vapors rising from the lake fall in rain or snow almost daily over a belt of country extending from 6 to 10 and sometimes 20 miles inland, thus keeping the region almost constantly under a cloud and shielding from loss of heat. From the 6th to the 10th of January, 1866, a period of excessive cold throughout the northeastern part of the United States, the cold came slowly on, borne by no strong wind or storm to reduce the temperature suddenly; consequently the vapor was wafted over Rochester from north and north of west, and the extreme observed was 5° to 15° higher than at places 20 miles distant from the lake.

In the spring the vapor continues to come off towards the south, and as the water does not cool down to 36° until March, its vapor clouds the shores by night and prevents frosts or causes light rains, so that for 8 or 10 or 15 miles inland peaches may escape the cold so often destructive at many places before their blossoming time; apples and pears also are favored at their season of bloom, and an admirable fruit region is obtained as many miles wide as these vapors or rains extend inland. The same agencies prevail through the summer season, when the midsummer heats raise additional vapors to be borne by the cooling north winds over the lands parched by drought, arrest the too rapid cooling during the dry nights of June and July, and shelter the tender fruits from the excessive cold, which frequently, in conjunction with an arid atmosphere, destroys the fruit crop generally throughout the land. In autumn the moderate heat acquired by the summer warming, which has probably reached the depth of 100 feet or more, is gradually given out; the lake having attained a nearly uniform temperature over its entire surface, its warm vapors, still borne by the northerly winds over its southern shores, prolong the growing season and prevent the access of early frosts. This longer autumn, though favorable to the maturation of apples, is not sufficiently warm near the lake shore for perfecting the better class of grapes.

Lake Ontario is so large and so deep that it never freezes in winter to any great extent. The ice formed along the shores is soon broken by the waves, and is only formed in any considerable quantity very late in the winter, after a long season of cooling, and when the surface has been unruffled for some days. The temperature of the entire lake waters can never be reduced to 32°, as by some supposed; for, owing to a law, now believed to be general, that bodies shall expand as they approach the point of congelation, the maximum density of water is not at 32° but at 39°.2 Fahrenheit, and after passing the latter point it expands until The surface it freezes, and thus, though colder, floats upon warmer waters.