The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-03-21
COMMUNICATIONS.
A Northern Cline Necessary to the Perfec-
ton Of Southern Fruits.
,e Editor Of the Press,


To the Editor Of the Press:
wish to call the attention of your readers
to one fact, of interest to all northern farmers
and fruit growers, which, / fear, is not SO gen.
orally known as it ought to be, and which. if
it were generally understood, would make the
agriculturalists of Maine quite reconciled TO our
northern latitude and contented with its eli
mate. 1t is this: Thai all cultivated plants
yield the greatest and choicest products, the
nearer they are acctimdetd to the northern
most limits In schich they can be brought to
maturity. In other words, all the farinaceous
plants-such as rice, corn, wheat, oats, barley,
rye and millet; all the tuberose or bulbous
roots-such as Irish potatoes, sweet potatoes,
carrots, beets, parsnips, turnips and radishes;
all the lint plants-such as cotton, fax. hemp,
&C.; all the salads-such as cabbage, lettuce,
celery, endive and spinach; all the grasses,
from timothy and red-top to lucerne and white
clover; all the delicious and pulpy fruits-such
as apples, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums,
grapes, cherries, currants, gooseberries, rasp-
berries, oranges, pine apples and olives; all the
gourd family, from pumpkins and squashes to
musk and watermelons; and even sugar cane
and tobacco; these are all more abundantly
fruitful in quantity and more perfect in quality
as they are carried and culticdted north of
their natire Idtitudinal homes. Emigration
totodrds us mot ours towards them) is indls-
And the reason is this. The hot sun of a
southern sky forces plants into a rapid fructi-
fication, before they have had time to concoct
their juices. The growth is too much In stalk,
culm and wood, for the composition of fruit.
The seed maturity is too much forced and too
early. The same is neasurably true Of human
products. Men and women In the tropics are
feeble, bear early and little, and die young.
Human subjects are strong, vigorous and fruit
fnl In tba Tar IN H.
that the Mortimer have been too much for
the Southern races.
Let me prove the position have stated In
relation to the perfectibiity of agricultural
and horticultural products In proportion as
they are brought TO an acclimation in more
northern attitudes.
Indian corn, or maize, was first discovered
by Columbus in the West Indies. There Ii
grew thirty feet In height; each stalk or tree
contains but single ear, and that produces
bnt q few grains at the bottom of a spongy
cob, which Is used only for rough provender.
In Alabama 1t reaches ffeen feet and can there
be made to yield thirty bushels per acre. Com
ing further north into Kentucky, it produces
fifty bushels to the acre but here in New Eng
land, and In Maine, where 1t grows but about
eight feet high, agricultural societies have not
unfrequently awarded premiums for one hun
dred bushels per acre. The heat of more
southern sun develops the juices of this plant
too quickly; hence 1t runs them into stalk and
blade to the neglect of the seed, and dries up
before fructiication becomes complete. This
Is why we can raise more corn on the same
quantity and quality of soil in Maine, than in
the Middle States.
Wheat is another important grain. Its nat
ural home is in the valley of the Euphrates: but
II you wish for perfect article you must fol-
low its emigration north to England and even
TO Russia on the Baltic sea. Wheat can never
amount to any thing in the Gulf States. The
climate Is too hot for it. In this country the
greatest yield and the heaviest grain are TO be
found in the northern States of the Union and
in the Canadas. The reason is, that hot sun
too early forces the plant into a head before
its farina can be concocted.
The same Is true of oats and barley. Who
does not know that the oats of Aroostook are
heavier, and much better fitted to make bread
OF, than the oats of Kennebec, and that these
are more valuable than those grown farther
south? In their native homes, in a southern
latitude or In Mexico and California, they
yield grain little preferable to witch grass
seed. They must come to us in the north and
be acclimated to our latitude, to do the world
any good. The Canadian, Aroostook and New
Brunswick barley, is much better grain than
the wheat Of the cotton States.
Speaking of cotton reminds me to refer to
this plant also, as an illustration of the fact
laid down in the beginning of this article. Cot
ton Is tropical plant, but 1t yields the surest
products In the temperate latitudes. The East
and West Indies can never compete with the
more northern regions Of Carolina and Tennes-
see In the quantity or quality of that article.
Cotton wool, like the fur Of animals. becomes
thick and fine as its cultivation advances
northward. and consequently Is worth more.
Notice also the other lint plants-hemp and
fax. The farther north you GO, the better the
fiber. The hemp OF Russia and the fax of
Ireland are vastly superior to the same arti
cles grown in Spain or Italy. In southern lat
itudes the fiber is harsh and brittle. A warm
climate forces these plants so rapidly into ma
tnrity, that the lint does not acquire either
consistency or tenacity. Like almost every
thing else, 1t takes a northern climate to per-
feet It,
Rice is tropical plant, but it makes feeble
show till 1t has emigrated tso to speak, to
temperate latitude. Carolina and Georgia
grow the finest rice in the world In all the
East Indies, where the Inhabitants subsist
mostly on rice, they have to cultivate II with
great skill and care, and the best contriyances