The Kanzas news., 1857-10-31

pertinence attach to the instances of exces-
sive drouth IN the history of the United
States
All these points, and numerous others of
almost equal prominence, are thoroughly
discussed in this volume, the great merit of
which is its practical character. The com
tplicated citations of authorities and the sta
tistical portions are put by themselves, and
the test is chiefly devoted to practical deduc-
tions. In regard to the fitness of the eli
mate of the United States for the cultivation
of tropical staples, Mr.. Blodget says:
"The vigor given to vegetation in cold
climates by the rapid increase of tempera-
ture, apparently as a single phenomenon, is
well known, and the popularity of the eli
mate here is that this great stimulus is thrown
upon tropical forms, producing the highest
measure of productiveness for this reason.
''The first cultivated staple in value, and
in the directness of its Chronological rela-
tions, Is Indian corn next are tobacco, cot
ton, sugar cane, rice, indigo and hemp,
though the last is of doubtful success here
in the tropical form, or in case of the Sisal
hemp. The common hemp belongs to tenn
perate ATTITUDES, and the various succulent,
fibrous-leaved plants, from which the other
|
grow freely in various parts of the Gulf
coast, though now little cultivated. The
vine and several fruits belong in the same
connection also; oranges, olives, figs and
pomegranates of full tropical associations,
and the peach, as the most important native
of the transition zone. To these the annu
al vines, as they are here called, melons,
pumpkins and others, add very decisive
proof of the tropical heat of the American
summer, and form distinction where even
the olive and the orange fail.
''The country near Fort Smelling abounds
in these more decisively than any part of
the European shore of the Mediterranean,
and where the orange and olive come to per-
fection, and find safe winter climate The
high brief heat which these require is as
certain here at Fort Smelling and in Canada,
as at Naples and in Syria. When the native
districts of the various species of cucurbita-
cea are called to mind, ali of which are in
India and Africa, the growth of the melon |
and pumpkin as field crops in the astonish- |
ing profusion they often exhibit north of
Lake Ontario, and on the plains of the |
Upper Mississippi and Missouri, fur
nishes striking item in proof of the
contrast with Europe in capacity to develop
plants of tropical origin.
1.-The highly stimulating increase of heat
characterizes all the native vegetation, and
the cultivation particularly, here, while the
degree is high and constant enough to make
the production singulariy rich. Sugar
is the most abundant product, and |
it belongs to many variable vegetable |
forms The stem or stalk of Indian corn
abounds in it nearly as much as that of su-
gar cane, and if it could be separated and
clarified readily, a heavy growth of corn
would yield nearly as much as a cane field
of the same area. Stems of grasses, and
all graminaceous plants, show the same ten
dency, and there is the greatest abundance
of sugar in melons and other cucurbitaceous
fruits. On the plains in the Mississippi
valley this tendency to development of sac
charine matter is more striking than else
where, and it canno: fail to be noticed in al
most every vegetable cultivated for any nu-
tritive use. Il is an associate of the rich
curve of summer development there, as it
may be called, which has only higher de-
gree than in the Atlantic States in the same
latitude, and it constitutes decisive distinc
ton from the climates where the leading ele-
ments of vegetable nutrition put On other
forms, and those of less complete charac
ter.
1.-The peculiar staples which attain the
highest perfection in the United States are
moulded by these general features, and not
more by the tropical measure of summer
heat than by the sub-arctic cold of winter.
They are of sudden growth, exuberant and
profuse in every respect. The forest trees
come suddenly in leaf, and all that belongs
to foliaceous growth is equally sudden and
luxuriant. The nutritive elements are de-
veIoped next on the same scale of profusion,
and the predominant form of these is as de-
cidedly saecharine as in the tropics. All
that belongs to the ripening stage is similar,
the essential oils, and the concentrated ele-
ments of seeds and fruits, whether nutritive
or aromatic The interior of the Eastern
continent, in the transition climates near
the Mediterranean, affords the highest de-
velopment of these ripened forms and one
much beyond that of the United States, it
is true, but here all products blend In eli
mate developing great profusion first, and
tendency to high perfection In all the ripen
ing processes, which a little care might
make scarcely less rich in its results than
the best districts of the Mediterranean.-
The most favorable close of summer and au-
tumn belonging to our variable seasons has
scarcely parallel in its fruitfulness, even
in any of the transition climates of the .
old world" II
His remarks on the cereals, grasses, vine
and suear-cane are not less instructive. OIL
our great northern staple, the Indian corn.
he speaks as follows:
1.-The limit of profitable cultivation of
this staple is practical question which be-
longs to this consideration, and it is some
what singular that what may be designated
as its decided success is so nearly coincident
with the extremes of its possible limits. It
is still more extraordinary that the districts
of maximum production lie so far north of
lafifn.do- ard roall,r r,oar tho nor