has prevented us from obtaining accurate descriptions this year, we will supply the deficiency next season.

I add the entire list of pears found of first quality, so far as we have tested, viz: Andrews, Bartlett, Beurre d' Amaulis, (nearly first rate,) Beurre de Ranz, Beurre Bosc, Beurre Diel, Bloodgood, Brown Beurre, Dearborn's Seedling, Duchesse d'Angouleme, Dix, Easter Beurre, Flemish Beauty, Fondante d'Automne, Frederick de Wurtemburg, Glout Morceau, Golden Beurre of Bilboa, Gray Doyenné, Jaminette, Louise Bonne de Jersey, Madeleine, Marie Louise, Passe Colmar, Seckel, St. Ghislain, Stevens' Genesee, Surpasse Virgalieu, Van Mons Leon le Clerc, White Doyenne, and Winter Nelis.

Plums. Our best early plum was raised by Mr. Camak from a stone brought from Italy by Hon. Richard Henry Wilde. We call it Wild's Plum. It is of the size of Imperial Gage; color, greenish yellow, and a clingstone. The Green Gage retains its excellence with us, but the tree proves a shy bearer. The great enemy to the plum with us, as elsewhere, is the curculio. The following have been tested, and found to equal Mr. Downing's description in all desirable points, viz: Bingham, Coe's Golden Drop, Frost Gage, German Prune, Huling's Superb, Imperial Gage, Jefferson, Lawrence's Favorite, Large Green Drying, Smith's Orleans, Washington, and Brevoort's Purple.

If the foregoing may in any degree promote the objects of the Convention, I shall be gratified to have made this communication. Yours very respectfully,

WM. N. WHITE.

Athens, Ga.

COMMUNICATION FROM E. MERIAM, ESQ.

ADONIRAM CHANdler, Esq.,

Cor. Secretary, American Institute:

Dear Sir-Among the many subjects that have been brought to the notice of the American Institute, there are none more interesting than facts which illustrate the harmonies of our atmosphere as developed in the changes of temperature, which convert fluids to solids and solids to fluids.

The sudden and great changes of temperature from cold to heat and heat to cold, have by many been supposed to exert an injurious effect upon health; but my close and long continued research into the harmonies of our atmosphere, and into the causes which produce great and sudden changes, has satisfied my mind that sudden and great changes of temperature are beneficial to the health of man instead of being an injury.

Franconia, a town situate on the Ammonoosuc river, near the White Mountains of New Hampshire, is subject to the most frequent, the greatest and the most sudden changes of temperature, and notwithstanding this, its inhabitants are more healthy and live to a greater age than persons residing where the temperature is more uniform.

These great changes are often independent of solar influence, hence we find at Franconia the temperature on the first day of January, 1848, at 9 P. M., at 58°, and at the same place on the morning of June first at sunrise, the temperature was 34°, and next morning fell to 28°, being 30° colder on the second day of June than on the first day of January.

In 1849, on the 13th of July, at noon, the temperature at Franconia rose to 103° in the shade, and on the morning of the 16th, at sunrise, was down to 35°, at noon 40°, and 38° at 9 P. M., being a change of 68° in three days.

In my examinations of the meteorological records, kept at West Granville, on the bank of Pawlet river, which discharges its waters towards the Gulf of the St. Lawrence, I found the temperature on the first of January, 1848, and the first and second of June of that year, and also that of July 13 and 16 of 1849, to correspond with that of Franconia.

In April, 1849, a destructive frost was experienced throughout a great extent of surface in the Northern Hemisphere; on the 15th and 16th, the cold was severe, and snow fell in many places. In my examination of the meteorological records at Granville, I found that the cold term filled the first section of a circle of 360 hours, having a duration of 45 hours, or one-eighth of the circle, during which the temperature of the air was at and below the freezing point. This is the most southern latitude in which I have been enabled to discover the existence of a cold cycle in the month of April.

The great fire in the city of New-York, on Dec. 16, 1835, occurred during a period of intense cold, and in my examination of the meteorological records kept at Granville, I found that a cold cycle existed there of 180 hours, being four sections, or eights, of the circle of 360 hours. In my examination of the meteorological records kept at Gouveneur, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., I found on the morning of the 17th of Dec., 1835, that the temperature was 40° below zero, and the mercury congealed.

In the month of February, 1848, in computing the number of hours of the month of January of that year, during which the temperature was at and below the freezing point, I discovered a term of 90 consecutive hours during which the atmospheric temperature was at and below the freezing point; and on a further examination, I found a like term of 90 hours in the month of December, 1847, and two terms of the same length in February, 1848. With this beginning, I set out on a new path of travel in the meteorological field, in which I have been eminently successful.

In March, 1848, there were three cold cycles-two of these were of 90 hours duration, and the other of 45 hours, or half of 90.

In the winter of 1848 and '49, nature was very instructive to me. A cold cycle commenced on the 31st day of December, between the hours of 5 and 6 P. M., and continued till between 7 and 8 P. M., of January 13th, being a term of 315 hours, or seven eighths of the great circle of 360 hours. When this cycle terminated, the Aurora lighted up the north, a rain-storm commenced which extended simul taneously over an extensive portion of the Northern Hemisphere. The same night the city of Vienna, in Austria, was visited by a fearful storm of thunder, lightning, wind and rain, tearing up the ice in the rivers of Europe, and carrying dismay and destruction in its path On comparing my records of temperature, which are made hourly during the continuance of this cycle, with those of North Salem, Westchester county, New-York, Franconia, N. H., and Granville, N. Y., I found an agreement; the cycle having filled the same term at each of those places.

On the 5th of February, 1849, between 5 and 6 P. M., a cold cycle commenced, and continued to February 11th at 9 A. M., making 135 hours, or three-eighths of a circle of 360 hours. On triangulating the records of my observations of this cycle with those of North Salem, Granville and Franconia, the accuracy of my observation was verified.

On the 12th of February, at about 2 A. M., a cold cycle commenced, and continued till the 23d at 9 A. M., a term of 270 hours, or sixeights of a circle of 360 hours. I watched the termination of this cycle, as I did that of the 315 hours, with intense interest, and felt almost overpowered by the emotions produced in witnessing this wonderful developement of the laws of nature in the harmonies which belong to the atmosphere that surround our beautiful earth.

Thus far in the winter of 1849-50, two cold cycles have existed, the first commenced January 13, between 3 and 4 P. M., and ended on the 15th, between 12 M. and 1 P. M.; filling an exact term of 45 hours, or one-eighth of a circle of 360 hours. On comparing this record with hourly records of temperature kept by Thomas Scott, Esq., at Cobourg, Canada, on the northern shores of Lake Ontario, I find that at that place the cold cycle commenced on the 12th, be