WATER AS AN AGRICULTURAL AGENT. 361 



nuity and power. It is diffused through the atmosphere in the 

 form of vapor. It is a powerful solvent, dissolving gases and a 

 great variety of solid substances. 



From the want of cohesion among the particles of water, they 

 are incapable of assuming any particular form without assistance, 

 and, consequently, water always takes the shape of the vessel 

 which contains it. Water cannot remain in a state of quiet equi- 

 librium unless every part of its surface is equidistant from the cen- 

 tre of the earth, or in what is generally called a water level, 

 though that apparent plane is, in fact, not a plane, but partakes of 

 the convexity of the earth. The study of this fluid, in its relation 

 to animal and vegetable life, presents new points of interest. Its 

 influence in tempering the climate, and adapting the seasons to 

 the uses and conditions of mankind, is most wonderful. Strike 

 from our State its lake area and web of rivers, and no brain is fer- 

 tile enough to imagine the disastrous influence upon its habital 

 condition for thus deprived of the summer's heat, stored away in 

 those waters to mitigate the winter's cold, the soil would become 

 pinched with dreadful frosts, tne mountains covered with eternal 

 snow, and the valleys filled with frightful glaciers. 



Sailors have from time immemorial, asserted the seeming para- 

 dox that a storm warms the sea, a fact now established by ther- 

 mometi'ical observations, that the difference of temperature in the 

 ocean before and after a storm, varies S9metimes as much as two 

 degrees. It is well known that along the Canadian border the 

 temperature of the climate is much modified by the presence of 

 those large lakes. 



Man's agency in effecting climatic modifications is a lesson we've 

 yet to learn, and how to make clouds more evenly distribute their 

 ' showers — that to the denudation of the mountains, and the destruc- 

 tion of the evergreen forests is attributable the withholding of the 

 sumijier rain, till , 



" The thirsty land is scorched and dreary, 

 O'er hill and valley and outstretched plain; 

 'Till the cattle, the tress and plants and flowers, 

 Searching for their food in vain. 

 Mutely appeal within those scorching hours — 

 God send thy rain !" 



or a turn in the tide of extremes breaks the "cloud-rinor," and the 

 very floodgates of the heavens are opened, and a deluge of waters 

 let fall upon the face of the earth, until the unharvested fields be- 



