90 STORING THE CANE. 
This effect may be thus explained. Water in freezing, or 
in being converted into the solid from the liquid state, 
evolves heat previously latent, causing an elevation of tem- 
perature in bodies in its immediate neighborhood. The 
cane from its position, in this case, was the recipient of a 
portion of this heat, and during the whole of the coldest 
weather when the congelation of the water on the cellar 
floor below was gradually going on, it was thus kept above 
the freezing point. The greater density of the juice as well 
as the protection afforded by the cellular and woody sub- 
stance of the stalk within which it was inclosed also con- 
tributed to this effect. On the other hand, when very mild 
weather suddenly ensued and the ice on the subjacent 
water began to melt, it in turn absorbed heat from the 
vane, but not so rapidly as to reduce it at any time to the 
freezing point. The surrounding air within the cellar also 
suffered a depression of temperature in like manner nearly 
equal to what it had been during the previous cold weather, 
being thus tempered by the water in the same way that a 
lake mitigates the extremes of climate on its shores. 
