A critical examination of the tabular exhibit of the progress of fruit-growing, as collected for the United States census of 1850 and 1860, illustrates the remarkable growth of this product in certain regions, and its stationary condition in others. Thus, in the Hudson river counties, though many of them are rugged and mountainous, with two exceptions, where but little advance was made, the fruit product increased from twenty to four hundred per cent., with an average increase in the crop of 1859 of ninety-five per cent. on the crop of 1849. In the mountainous counties south of the Mohawk and west of the Hudson, more remote from the latter, and where generally a more rigid climate prevails, one-half exhibited an increase, and one-half a decline in the rate of fruit product, so hat the exceedingly small increase of three per cent. appears. It is probable that the increased facilities of access to market may have stimulated the growth in the river counties beyond the measure due to their climatic advantages.

The counties located around and not distant from the minor lakes present a rate of increase in their fruit product proportioned to the advantages of their position, when compared with those of the latter section, as well as with each other. Their rate of increase varies from forty-three for Cortland to three hundred for Ontario, with an average of one hundred and sixty-five per cent. advance on the crop of 1849. Schuyler being a new county formed from Steuben and Tompkins, these do not exhibit the rates of increase properly their due. The expansion of fruit culture in this favored district is, however, sufficiently marked.

Extending our view to the southern tier of counties, the plateau, which is an extension from northern Pennsylvania and often 1,200 to 1,500 feet high, with deep valleys worn by the head-waters of the Susquehanna and the Alleghany, we find a strong contrast among the series, as well as on comparing the entire region with that adjoining it on the north. While some of these counties have made a great growth from small beginnings, others from an advanced state show an extraordinary decline-so much, indeed, as to throw doubt on the value of the census returns for one county. Thus Alleghany county, from a product of 44,000 in 1849, declined, if we may trust the census of 1860, to $1,263 in 1859. Cattaraugus exhibited a decline of fifty per cent., which is greater than that shown by any other county. The southern tier of plateau counties is, on the whole, compelled to submit to appear as retreating instead of advancing in the march of pomological progress.

In strong contrast to the condition of fruit-growing in the southern border counties is the extraordinary increase of the product of those which border on the great lakes, as shown in the returns tabulated. The least progress was made by the most northern county, Jefferson, Erie ranking next. Both of these are most exposed to winds which flow from the northwest and west, and pass over but a narrow expanse of water before reaching the counties of Jefferson and Erie. Livingston and Wyoming counties are more remote from the waters, and show a much lower rate of increase than the lake-border counties, but much in advance of Erie, perhaps because more under the lee of Lake Ontario. Thus the rate of increase in these lake-protected districts varied from 7 to 721 per cent., and from $456,000 in 1849 to $1,504,000 in 1859.

In a sketch of the horticulture of western New York, by P. Barry, in the Transactions of the New York State Agricultural Society for 1843, he

says:

"It is shown by correct statistical information that more than 15,000 barrels of apples have been sold the present season in the Boston market from New York at two dollars per barrel, an aggregate of $30,000. This is no inconsiderable item in the products of our State; and yet there are thousands of farmers who have not an apple on their places fit to be eaten at home, much less to be sent to market." How much the farmers of western New York have profited by the above strictures, and those of other pomologists, may appear in the few statistics for 1855 and 1865, which have come within our reach.

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 miany 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°, 390, 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 S°; 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