" At Fort Yuma, in the valley of the Colorado, the freezing point is never reached in 

 spring. 



" At all the stations in New Mexico, the temperature constantly falls below 32° in every 

 month of spring, and at Fort Massachusetts and Fort Defiance, it usually does so in June. 



" In Texas, there is no frost or ice in the lower Rio Grande Valley in these months, though 

 it twice occurs at Fort Duncan, and the posts of that vicinity, in March. Perhaps a more 

 extended series of years would give instances of severe frost in the principal portion of this 

 valley in March, though there could be none in the following mouths. All the remaining 

 portion of Texas has the occurrence of frosts in March regularly ; in April for the lower dis- 

 tricts very rarely, though they occur in half the years, or more, at the posts on the plateaux, 

 elevated one or two thousand feet ; but never in May, at any point not mountainous. 



" In the principal area of the United States, eastward, the lower portion of the peninsula 

 of Florida, below Fort Brooke, is the only portion not liable to frosts in March, in extreme 

 years. From the year 1822, when observations were made either at that district, or so near 

 it as to decide the point, twelve years occur in which the thermometer fell to 32°, or lower, 

 as far south as Fort King, and, in two of these years, at least 1835 and 1843, it fell to the 

 freezing point as far southward as Fort Brooke. In something more than half the years of 

 the period now observed, the coast of the Gulf, and of the Atlantic to Charleston, experi- 

 ences one or more instances of a temperature of 32° in this month. 



" In April, the line of ice and frosts, or a temperature at or near 32°, recedes to Fort Mon- 

 roe and Fort Gibson, and they are much more rare at either of these posts, than at Florida 

 stations in March. The depressions of temperature within which they occur, are, however, 

 frequently connected with falls of snow in the Atlantic States, and they usually affect the 

 more elevated portions of all the States east of Alabama. In 1854, a heavy fall of snow 

 occurred in the middle of the month in Virginia, and ice was formed in the vicinity of 

 Charleston. Though frosts are quite frequent in this month at St. Louis, there are few 

 instances of the formation of ice in the latitude of Fort Gibson ; light hoar frosts occur in 

 almost every year, however, and sometimes as far southward as Baton Rouge. These may 

 occur at an air temperature of 43°, in the ordinary positions of the thennometer. 



" In May, the line of ice formation rises to St. Louis, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and New 

 York, and, at these points, the temperature of 32° is not found in every year. Ice is formed 

 during the first half of the month to this latitude, in the interior districts, however, quite 

 regularly, and hoar frosts occur in the remainder, where the altitude is noticeable, and at 

 some distance from the coast. At the close of this month, frosts disappear from all portions 

 of the United States territory, except at the highest altitudes cultivated." 



THE YEAST PLANT. 

 Country Lady Housekeeper. — " Cook, we are out of yeast ; I wish you would make some." 

 Cook. " I never makes yeast ; I always buys it." 



Lady. " Yes, but it is too far to send to to^vn for a pennith of yeast ! How do you make 

 yeast?" 



Cook. " Well, I mixes flour, salt, and hop-water, and adds a pennith of yeast." 

 The poor lady is not able to discover how this will orifjinale what is so indispensable, and 

 hastens to the nearest neighbor with the question : " How do you make yeast ?" Answer as 

 before. "Mix flour, salt, aud hop-water, and add a pennith of yeast.^' This reply any 

 lady who chooses to make the experiment will receive every time she asks, whether from 

 neighbor, baker, or any one else. Let her try a scientific friend, and more probably than 

 the same will be the result, and she is sorely puzzled to know how it would be, if by 

 bad luck the whole country was to lose the source whence comes that important pennith ! 



