GO THE HEW AGRICULTURE. 



Reaching home, about the tenth of May 1884, all went hope- 

 fully on for a while, till came that fearful blizzard, not soon to be 

 forgotten, about the last of the month, and so chilling our expect- 

 ations as to bring us near to discouragement. It was while journey- 

 ing to the Pacific coast that we had occasion for a few hours to look 

 squarely in the face a champion blizzard, gotten up at Manitoba's 

 best, leaving no room for doubt as regards the place where, congel- 

 ation putting on the intense, "the frozen waters gendered are." 

 "Whether the one which struck western New York and other sec- 

 tions in the East and "West on the 29th of May, 1884, has been 

 equalled in the memory of the oldest inhabitant is doubtful. No 

 more decisive test of the efficacy of our system as protection 

 against frost could have been applied. The ground was frozen to 

 the depth of from one to two inches on all plowed lands upon our 

 fifty acres outside of the acre and a quarter at that time per- 

 fected in trenching under our system. In the latter, evaporation 

 of spring water through the soil was such as to prevent freezing, 

 and the damage to our garden was correspondingly mitigated. 

 Our strawberries were much injured by the frost striking the buds 

 and blossoms, and the currants were killed at the tops but not at 

 the bottoms of the bushes. The result was, damage, but by no 

 means that total loss of the crops experienced by farmers and 

 gardners in western New York generally. This convinced us that 

 our system is proof against the effects of frost to a degree that 

 makes it, in this particular, worth millions annually to regions sub- 

 ject to disaster from this source. 



It was a consolation to know that our system had proven in 

 some degree protective against Manitoba's champion blizzard, and 

 yet, in view of the fact that we had gotten up great expectations, 

 confident of being able to show to the world the wonder workings 

 of our system to an extent coming so near to demonstration as to 



