444 Action of the Atmosphere iipon newly-deepened Soil. 



altliough it did eventually go down, did not do so until it 

 had filled and ripened, being about the first ready of the whole 

 field — tlie cutting was indeed begun at it ; whereas the portions 

 adjoinuig, that got no salt, lodged much Avorse, never thoroughly 

 ripened, and were many days later. The nature of the soil was 

 a light loam, naturally wet, but thoroughly drained. I ought, 

 however, to mention that this effect does not always happen ; for 

 the very same season, I caused one whole ridge in the middle of 

 another field to be sown with common salt at an earlier part of 

 the summer, at the rate of 3 cwt. per imperial acre, and saw it 

 done myself, as in the other case. But in this instance I could 

 see no influence the salt had, neither in caushig the straw to be 

 stronger and stand up better, nor in hastening the process of 

 ripening ; nor did the men employed in reaping the crop detect 

 any difference in the quality of the straw from that on the adjoin- 

 ing ridges, pieces of the crop being about equally lodged in them 

 all. The soil in this case was mostly a stifiish clay, also natu- 

 rally wet, but thoroughly drained. 



The crops along the sea-coast may be observed in many places 

 to be generally earlier in ripening than those farther inland ; and 

 it is possible that this may be partly due to the greater Cjuantity 

 of sea-salt brought up on them by the winds off the ocean. 



" Fresh-fallen rain," says Mr, Mallet, in investigating the 

 action of air and water on iron, " after a time of drought, espe- 

 cially in cities, comes down so loaded with free oxygen, carbonic 

 acid, and ammoniacal salts, that it produces instantly a coat of 

 red rust upon any iron placed in contact with it," He then gives 

 the following interesting effect of dew: — "But the deposition of 

 dew, under certain circumstances, originates the most immediate 

 and powerful oxidation, as the following observation testifies : 

 On the 14th March, 1842, the temperature at Dublin, at twelve 

 o'clock noon, was high, and trie day fine, but the air was nearly 

 saturated with moisture, and dew rapidly collected on the po- 

 lished parts of a large steam-engine, which stood unfinished in 

 a shady open building whose temperature v.as considerably below 

 that of the open air. In two hours' time after being wiped clean 

 with cotton-waste, all its bright-work had a moist coating of red 

 rust upon it. The rusty moisture could be swept off by the 

 finger. The fact of such rapid action of deposited dew is re- 

 markable, and is not confined to a single instance, having been 

 noticed also to me by engineers as occurring frequently at Liver- 

 pool." 



The yearly amount of rain that falls in the British Islands has 

 been computed to be (Johnston s Pliysical Atlas, folio ed.) : — ■ 



English Inches. 



On plains 24"51 



On mountain ransres 40'59 



