METEOROLOGY. 225 



Importance of Meteorology to Farmers. 



THE following remarks on the importance of meteorology to farmers were made by Dr. 

 Anderson, of Scotland, in a recent address before the Highland Agricultural Society : 



The whole success of agricultural experiments depends on the watchful care bestowed on the 

 modifying circumstances which affect them, and I have indicated frequent repetition as a 

 means of avoiding the errors which they may occasion; but there is one great modifying in- 

 fluence, the importance of which is every day brought prominently before us, but the accurate 

 estimation of which has surely received less attention on the part of farmers than it deserves. 

 Indeed, it is somewhat remarkable that more has not been done in the study of meteorology, 

 in an agricultural point of view, for the purpose of ascertaining, with more precision than we 

 at present can, the influence of the weather on the amount of production. The progress of 

 science has shown us that the growth of a plant is dependent on certain chemical changes 

 which take place only under the influence of the sun's rays; and the quantity of produce 

 which can be raised on any given surface, provided the conditions of the soil, manure, and 

 the like, are identical, is the measure of the amount of light and heat which reaches it; and. 

 conversely, given the heat and light, we may predicate the quantity of the crop. The plant, 

 in fact, gathers, as it were, the heat which falls upon it, and preserves in a latent state a 

 magazine of that great prime mover of mundane affairs; and when it is burned under a fur- 

 nace, or consumed by an animal, it only gives off the heat which it had received from the sun, 

 and which is again expended in producing a certain amount of mechanical force, or in sus- 

 taining the temperature and causing the muscular efforts of the animal which eats it. 



Now all this we know in a general way, but we are sadly deficient in the application of this 

 knowledge to individual localities, and in precise information regarding the climatic peculiari- 

 ties of different districts; although, if we had this information to conjoin with our experiments 

 in the field, we should doubtless obtain many valuable conclusions. We should find, for in- 

 stance, that certain manures produce a more favorable effect in dry, and others in wet seasons ; 

 and many similar facts, of which we have now only distant glimmerings, "would be made clear. 

 By a well-devised set of meteorological observations, these and many other facts would be 

 established in the course of time. We should do even more than this, for though the weather 

 is proverbially uncertain, we should be able to predict, with some degree of accuracy, the 

 meteorological character of each year ; for it is known that there is a cycle of years, at the 

 end of which similar seasons occur; and all that we require is a sufficient number of observa- 

 tions to enable us to fix it. It is manifest, however, that if results of any importance are to 

 be obtained, the principle of association must be carried out on the most extended scale, and 

 so as to embrace observations made at a great number of different stations. 



Protection against HaiL 



THE second volume of the works of Arago has called attention to several points in meteor- 

 ology. In the chapter which he devotes to the subject of hail, he states, that, in 1847, two 

 small agricultural districts of France had lost, by hail, crops to the value of a million and a 

 half of francs. Certain of the proprietors from the neighborhood went to consult Arago on 

 the means of protecting them from like disasters. Resting on the hypothesis of the electric 

 origin of the hail, he suggested the discharge of the electricity of the clouds by balloons com- 

 municating by a metallic wire with the soil. These projects, however, were not carried out : 

 and in view of the doubts as to the electric origin of hail, he proposed to investigate the sub- 

 ject anew. He had not the time to bring out any results; but he persisted in believing in 

 the effectiveness of the method proposed. 



Statistics of Lightning. 



THE French Academy of Sciences have received some interesting observations on the effects 

 of the lightning-stroke upon human beings. The following facts are the result of patient 

 observations made by M. Boudin, chief surgeon to the Hopital du Roule : The number of 



15 



