APRIL, ^ 179 



The quantity of rain that fell through the year being 38^7^ 

 inches, was not so much less than an average as to have caused 

 any very serious injury to vegetation and the crops, if that 

 quantity had been more equably diffused through the year ; 

 but during the three months, when rain is most wanted, very 

 much less than the average quantity of these months fell, 

 and that during the last of them, August, there was no rain 

 at all. Taking the nine years previous to the last, it is found 

 that the average quantity of rain that falls during June, Jnly, 

 and August, is 9 '.iiches ; while the quantity that fell during 

 these months in 1854 was but 4/^7 inches, or more than 4 

 inches less than an average. In 1851, it is true, that during 

 the three summer months but 5 inches of rain fell ; yet this 

 quantity, thouo;h small, was somewhat eqaully diffused through 

 the whole ; and with this exception, there was not, from 1844 

 up to 1854, any like period when a less quantity of rain fell than 

 about 8 inches. The principal cause of the injury that the 

 crops received from the drought then, was the entire absence 

 of rain in August ; had it not been for this, notwithstanding 

 its general characteristic of dryness, it is believed that the 

 season would not have been very unpropitious. 



Three things, relating to three different kinds of cultivation, 

 were last season particularly noticeable; — there was no rot 

 among potatoes ; pears did not crack as usual, and there was 

 little or no mildew on grapes. It may be that the causes of 

 these diseases have no connection with each other, and the 

 absence of each the same season may be accidental ; but to 

 think otherwise would not seem very irrational, or the expres- 

 sion of an opinion that the cause of each is the same, and 

 that atmospherical, seem very absurd. 



The great benefit to be derived from deep tilling, high 

 cultivation, and mulching of fruit trees, as a protection against 

 the effects of drought, was, in repeated instances, manifested 

 the last season in an especial manner. Trees growing under 

 the former of these circumstances, even without any mulching, 

 seemed to escape any very essential injury ; while others, 

 growing in perhaps the same field, on a part sown down to 

 grain or grass, were, apparently, materially injured; the leaves 



