Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: vated. Much of it, however, leaches very badly. The Portsmouth series, generally speaking, is of a closer texture, colder, and more difficult to cultivate, than the other type. Moreover, it requires considerable artificial drainage and also washes and gullies rather easily. Climate In the matter of climate the people of Chowan are especially favored. The years are not made up of long, cold winters and short, hot summers, one shifting abruptly into the other; nor are the years made up of hot, dry seasons followed by sultry, rainy ones. Only those who have experienced these two types of climate can fully appreciate the climate of Chowan. Here the four seasons are quite pronounced, and spring and fall—the two seasons usually considered the most delightful of the year wherever the four seasons are found, and the two of which so many climates are almost, if not altogether, bereft—are the longest seasons. There is seldom any winter until after Christmas, and by the 2Oth of March usually spring has set in. Summer does not begin till about the 2Oth of June, and by the 1st of September the autumn days are already proffering their greetings. You of Chowan who have sojourned in other climes—you can never forget your glorious spring and fall days which make one feel that it is really good to be alive. Another beauty of the climate is its comparative freedom both from monotony, and from great extremes of heat and cold.1 People who have lived in certain sections of California, for instance, know how tiresome even good weather can become. There, where mild, clear days follow each other in long successions, one finds himself feeling that a hail-storm, a cyclone, a blizzard—almost anything to break 1 Cf. table 1, p. 261. the dull monotony—would be a welcome change. Bright sunshiny d... --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.