When geese were first introduced into Bogota,
they laid few eggs at long intervals, and few of the young survived. By
degrees, however, the fecundity improved, and in about twenty years
became equal to what it is in Europe. According to Garcilaso, when fowls
were first introduced into Peru they were not fertile, whereas now they
are as much so as in Europe.
Plants furnish much more important evidence. Our nurserymen distinguish
in their catalogues varieties of fruit-trees which are more or less
hardy, and this is especially the case in America, where certain
varieties only will stand the severe climate of Canada. There is one
variety of pear, the Forelle, which both in England and France withstood
frosts that killed the flowers and buds of all other kinds of pears.
Wheat, which is grown over so large a portion of the world, has become
adapted to special climates. Wheat imported from India and sown in good
wheat soil in England produced the most meagre ears; while wheat taken
from France to the West Indian Islands produced either wholly barren
spikes or spikes furnished with two or three miserable seeds, while West
Indian seed by its side yielded an enormous harvest.
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