OUR HOMES. 71 



A great storm occurred in January, 1864, moving- from 

 west to east on the same parallel of latitude. At Kansas City, 

 •where it struck the timbered land after traversing the plains from 

 the Rocky Mountains, the temperature observed was about 29° 

 below zero ; in St. Louis county it was 22° below ; at Cincinnati 

 12° below ; at Portsmouth, Ohio, at zero only, showing that it 

 had warmed up 29°. 



Storms from the west, northwest or north are observed to be 

 five degi-oes warmer at St. Louis than at Kansas City. This dif- 

 ference is attributed to the fact that no storm can reach St. Louis 

 without passing through a more or less densely timbered district 

 for one hundred and fifty to two hundered miles ; while it reaches 

 Kansas from any of these points through an almost treeless re- 

 gion. Observations have been made in Iowa, and at Chicago, 

 with results corresponding witli those noted by Mr. Tice at St. Louis. 

 The beneficial effects of tree shelter in winter, as seen at the west, 

 will probably be found in like degree here in Maine. In summer, 

 trees exert a greater influence in the economy of nature than is 

 seen in their winter effect. It comes within my plan to notice 

 some of these effects ; but to do so in simplest brevity will be un- 

 satisfactory to you and to me, and fail to do justice to the trees. 



On an occasion like this, if anywhere outside of a purely scien- 

 tific effort, we may be allowed to pause, and to offer reverence to 

 the divine spirit of life, as manifest in plants. While we deal 

 with the practical subject of locating and constructing a home, the 

 whole matter of vegetable life so presses upon us, so enters into 

 all our estimates and balances, so far over-reaches other consider- 

 ations, that our choice of location is well nigh made from these 

 intelligible indices of soil and climate. 



The phenomena of existence in the vegetable world, though in 

 our present condition concealed from us in its essence, are cogniza- 

 ble by our senses in that which it produces, and that from which 

 this product is brought forth. We feel the rushing of the 

 vital current in the joy which pervades our being when in spring 

 it bursts the buds and covers the earth with showers of blossoms, 

 and when in summer and autumn it presents to the husbandman 

 the seeds and the fruits. The plant, whether it fulfils its appointed 

 task in one brief summer, or not until after centuries of life, is 

 equally the subject of our regard. 



The inquirer has advanced by two paths up to a certain point, 

 near the mysterious laboratory of vegetable life ; first, by obser- 



