at the time of publication in local journals, perhaps proves partial or overcolored at a later period. At the present time the mass of these results is very well known, however, and they may be generally stated as corroborative of the indications of the investigation just given. The English and foreign grain harvest suffered the greatest losses; and the consequences so clearly foreshadowed at the close of July, and known, or possible to be known, by attention to the temperature measurements received at that time. from England and Northern Europe, with some definiteness even at that time, were realized in a very severe measure. Some notices of a general character will add to the force of the statement of this purely climatological result. The tone of the following notices is uniformly sustained by all the statements of results there, at their dates, of which large numbers of instances are at hand: "The reports from all parts of the kingdom agree in stating that the deficiency in wheat will be very serious. Several instances have come to our own knowledge, in which, upon threshing the produce of a given number of acres, the yield has scarcely exceeded half the quantity obtained from the same land. in good average seasons; the deficiency, taking the kingdom collectively, will certainly amount to one-fourth, if not a third, and we shall unquestionably require to import very largely."-London Mercantile Gazette, Sept. 6. "Harvest prospects are now the subject of anxiety and speculationa subject intensely interesting to all classes alike. As a general statement, the crop may be pronounced bad for this period of the season. It will be found to hold, as a general rule, that a late harvest is a deficient one, and this season will prove no exception. The common report on this point is, that the crop is short, both as respects straw and grain; in some districts we find it set down at two-thirds of an average. Ou the whole, the prospects of the harvest are precarious, and an average return can hardly now be reckoned upon. And, as it is, there is no alarm throughout the country, and no excitement, save what prevails among dealers in grain, regarding our food prospects, notwithstanding the unpromising nature of the weather. The world is now before us, from which to obtain supply and make up our lack. The latest advices from the Continent speak of a defective harvest there as well as in this country, and the upward movement of the past week in Mark Lane has been chiefly caused by a large export demand for shipments to France, where the crop is said to have turned out worse than it is at all likely to do here."-London Correspondence of Sept. 27, The Agricultural Gazette and Gardeners' Chronicle gives, in January, 1854, the following summary of results of the British harvest, collected with great care, through a general effort early entered upon by the agricultural interest. It is valuable for both the positive and comparative results it embodies, and illustrates the actual condition of British agriculture, as well as the climatological results of an unusually disas trous year: for it, and there is adequate cause in defective soil. On the more elevated ridges of the White and Green mountains of the Northeast, forest limits appear, however, which belong to climate alone. The range of deciduous trees of the various species, and of some kinds of cultivated crops, might, perhaps, be examined with some precision in these last districts, but as yet we have no observations which may be used. In the Rocky mountains, and from these to the Pacific, elevation becomes quite important in the range of cultivated plants, and it would be a most interesting examination to ascertain the limit of the various trees, grasses, and other native growths. Elevation has not here the same. significance as in Europe, however, and a new scale of points would be necessary. In a succeeding list, the range of well-known grains and forest trees is given for the Caucasus, with limits of 6,000 to 7,000 feet above the sea. In portions of our own interior the general level is scarcely less than these limiting elevations, and from this plateau, mountains rise several thousands of feet higher, clothed with grasses and forests nearly to their summits. The absence, in our western interior, of the usual distinctions belonging to elevation, is strikingly shown in the very high and almost universal range of cacti, and in the fact that this great characteristic form of dry and hot climates only gives place to the mosses at the highest portions of the mountain plateau. Fremont remarks, only at the South Pass, itself, "cacti have become rare, and mosses begin to dispute the hills with them." Deciduous trees flourish at this elevation of 8,000 feet, and on many equally elevated tracts on various parts of the range. The mountains of Caucasus are between 40 and 45° north latitude, and the more elevated portions of the Rocky mountains between 38° and 42°. Though we are not now able to assign limits in the vertical range of cultivation nor of native growths on this continent, it evidently differs widely from that of the Alps and the Caucasus. As a general rule, similar growths go higher here, and the massive plateau from which the mountains, properly so called, take their rise, corresponds nearly in temperature with coast districts of the same latitude near the level of the sea. In the prospective wants of the Pacific region, all the cultivable capacity of the adjacent country must be brought into requisition, and the mountain sides and elevated valleys will be made to yield whatever they may for support of large populations. The Rocky mountains and their connected ranges south of 42° north latitude may undoubtedly be cultivated or occupied to a much greater extent than the European Alps proper, and the whole region permit some forms of valuable production. The following list of upper limits of various growths in the Caucasus is taken from Kupffer's report of the physical (meteorological) observatories of Central Russia. The district of the Caucasus lies between the 40th and 45th parallels of north latitude, and it gives us a more precise basis of comparison, in general climate, than the district of the Alps. The precise localities named are obscure, but they all lie near Titlis, which is south of the principal chain of Caucasian mountains, and in latitude 42°: Cereal grains in north of Switzerland Maize, or Indian corn.... Barley in south of Switzerland. The cherry-tree... The walnut... The walnut in the Pennine Alps.. - 4,780 " 4,250" 5,900 " Mean limit of cultivated fields on the Pennine Alps... Of the fir, in the same.. It is to be regretted that no statistics exist of the vertical range of various plants and forest trees on our own mountain ranges. Some of those near the Pacific would afford valuable measures for comparison, and might show a correspondence with European results not found on the Rocky mountains. Pine and aspen forests certainly attain the height of 11,000 feet at the Parks, and generally near the sources of the great rivers which rise in that part of the Rocky mountains. The snow-line and limit of vegetation of every sort are undetermined. Further southwest, on the isolated mountains between Santa Fé and the Colorado of California, pine forests cover the San Francisco mountains to the summit, an elevation of 12,000 feet. Maize is cultivated in this district at an elevation of 5,000 to 6,000 feet, on the mountains of Zuñi, and others southward. The contrast afforded by the corn-fields and fruits cultivated at 6,300 feet clevation at Zuñi, with its limit at 2,500 in the Alps, may show how decisively American climates differ from the European in measures usually taken as standard. HIGHEST TEMPERATURES IN THE UNITED STATES. The following table is prepared to represent the principal agricultural districts of the United States in the extremes of high temperature through the several months. The first numbers at each station give the highest temperatures ever observed at the locality for each month, and a series of years has, in all cases, except those otherwise noted, been collated to obtain the positive maximum found there. The oscillations of these principal changes return in a period of ten or twelve years, and the numbers given may safely be taken as the highest to be anticipated at any time. The second set of numbers is the mean of the separate maxima observed in a series of years, and these points may be expected to be reached for every year. The last are the more important to cul tivation. The illustration of maximum temperatures as single measurements may be so uniform for all parts of the United States east of the Rocky mountains, that they have not been given in a tabular form in connexion with other temperature measures in illustrating the climatology of any staple. Reference may be made to the few representative stations given here for any one of them, though in most cases no distinctive importance attaches to this point. Generally, this uniformity of geographical range for extreme high temperatures is very important to cultivation, as proving a more decidedly high curve both of daily and monthly changes than would be found in climates giving no such single measures. The value of this peculiarity is, however, far better shown |