New-York tribune., 1869-04-16
TIE WEATHER AND TIE CROPS.

TIE WEATHER And TIE CROPS
Throughout the greater part of the Republic
we had unusual weather in the Winter and
the first of the Spring months. January was
very much like all Januarys, and gave us
great snow banks in New-YOrk and New-En-
gland, aud floods of rain on the cotton and
sugar fields. But February and March shifted
places. For week before and a week after
Wasbington's birthday the ground near this
city was almost bare Of snow the rivers ran
free of ice carpenters, masons, and painters
could do full days work about as easy as in
October or May; stock wandered about over
the farms, nibbling sere herbage and basking in
the mellow sun. Farmers could set fence
posts and lay wall for weeks together; and
in the southern part OF New-Jersey, PeDnsyl-
vana, and Ohio great deal of plowing was
done. But March came in like lion. lhe
4th, 9TH, and 9th Of the month were III many
places the coolest of the season. The boys
lashed on their skates again, and the Ice mer-
chants were in fair way to harvest a second
crop. Plows could run in Tennessee Gnd the
Carolinas but very little ut the North. Toward
the last of the month the temper OF this 1ltful
month. mindful of the old prOyerb, mtigated
little and grew lamb-lke on the 23d, 2lth,
and 2jth. But there is no escape from the
eternal laws. People who live over 40 de-
grees north of the Equator must make
ND their minds to certain doses OF
CO water, and il they have less in Feb
ruary they must button OvercOats in April.
On tho 4th and 9TH OF the current month
the wheat fields were looking their tenderest
green; on banks facing south there was good
bite Of grass, and many had potatoes III. But
an arctic blast, all the way from Labrador
or Baiiin's Bay, swept down across the CONT
nent; ice as thick as window glass cTept from
the margin .of pools water left i'll pan or
bucket on the north side of houses was so
crusted as to require sharp blow from
hatchet or n booted heel. If the weather in
the latter part of March had been n little
mellower, this unkind cut i'll April would
have wrought wide damage. n few
degrees more of mildness would have spread
the faint blush of opening peach blooms over
thousands of orchards in New-Jersey and Ohio,
and might have drawn the more cautious apple
trees into ruinous indiscrction. For those who
live within n hundred miles of the latitude OF
Philadelphia and Columbus, the mild weather
in March followed by this cold snap in April
corresponds to the effect at the South OF the
mild February followed 10y the severe weather
in March. The result has been in some places
quite disastrous TO the peach crop. The pros
pect in the low lands of Tennessee is bad; but
on the mountains in that State the peach crop
is almost as sure as the grass crop.
In Southern Illinois, the peach prospect IL
not very flattcrmg, yet the injury by frost is
overestimatcd. In Maryland the failure in
some orchards will 10 complete, in others
partial. In Somerset County, New-Jorsey, the
peach buds were killed. The cold did no harm
TO peaches in Michigan, nor much in Northern
Ohio.
The wheat fields come ont of the Winter in
excellent condition. From every quarter, and
all the way across the Continent, from the
valleys of California to tho flats of Long
Island, the word is that tho wheat never
looked better at this time Of year. This news
brings sorrow only to those farmers who re-
fused 81 go and 81 so, and held over for So
The editorial articles in many of the South
ern newspapers deserve as much consideration
as the question whether frost, or mildew, or
army worm will cut down this or that crop
Those editorials urge the whole Southern COM
munity to devote itself to improved and
progressive agriculture with vigOT, and to the
exclusion of all political aspirations or protests.
The South Carolina papers urge palmetto
planters to put in less cotton, but to plOw
deeper, and manure more literally; they suggest
that growing fruits aud vegetables for tho
Northern seaboard cities w0uld be profitable
venture. The Memphis Journals likewise press
The policy Of growing fruits and melons in
soil and climate peculiarly fitted for them, and
thus supplying the cities Of the Northwest Il
month sooner than can be done on lands
in the vicinity of Cincinnati, st. Louis, and
Chicago.
There are two general features in our agri-
culture that deserve consideration and earnest
efforts toward working change. One relates
especially to the North, the other to the South.
l. In all tho wheat growing States the num-
ber of bushels to the acre is falling off yearly.
On n frpsher soil with oS ooOl climote the