174 THE FARMER AT HOME. 



fox from tree to tree, sometimes two or three hundred paces, often 

 repeating the watch-cries. 



FREEZING-. In philosophy, the same with congelation. 

 Freezing may be defined the fixing a fluid body into a solid mass, by 

 the action of cold. Water and some other fluids suddenly dilate and 

 expand in the act of freezing, so as to occupy a greater space in the 

 solid than in the liquid state; in consequence of which ice is specific- 

 ally lighter than water, and floats upon it. Water also loses of its 

 weight by freezing, being found lighter after it is thawed than before 

 it was frozen. And it even evaporates nearly as fast while frozen, as 

 while it is fluid. Water which has been boiled freezes more readily 

 than that which has not been boiled ; and a slight disturbance of the 

 fluid disposes it to freeze more speedily ; having sometimes been 

 cooled several degrees below the freezing point, without congealing 

 when kept quite stilL but suddenly freezing into ice on the least mo- 

 tion or disturbance. Water, covered over with a surface of oil of 

 olives, does not freeze so readily as without it ; and nut oil absolutely 

 preserves it under a strong frost, when olive oil would not. Rectified 

 spirit of wine, nut oil, and oil of turpentine, seldom freeze. The sur- 

 face of water, in freezing, appears all wrinkled ; the wrinkles being 

 sometimes in parallel lines, and sometimes like rays, proceeding from 

 a centre to the circumference. Fluids standing in a current of air 

 grow much colder than Before. Fahrenheit had long ago observed, 

 that a pond, which stands quite calm, often acquires a degree of cold 

 much beyond what is sufficient for freezing, and yet no congelation 

 ensued ; but if a slight breath of air happens in such a case to brush 

 over the surface of the water, it freezes the whole in an instant. It 

 has also been discovered, that all substances grow colder by the evap- 

 oration of the fluids which they contain, or with which they are 

 mixed. If both these methods, therefore, be practised upon the same 

 body at the same time, they will increase the cold to almost any de- 

 gree of intenseness we please. Plants are frequently destroyed by 

 frost, when overtaken by it while in the vigor of growth, as the ex- 

 pansion of the juices in that state bursts the tender vessels, and causes 

 death. The freezing of wheat causes more loss to the farmer and 

 the country than all other losses from frost combined. When a soil 

 is tenacious, or contains a large proportion of clay, and by its position 

 or want of drainage abounds in water, as such soils usually do, there 

 is great danger that wheat sown on such lands will freeze out, or win- 

 ter kill, as it is termed ; and examination will show that there are 

 very few farms or fields where wheat is sown, where more or less 

 plants are not destroyed by this cause. The destruction is usually 

 performed in the spring months, when the ground is bare, and freezes 

 at night after thawing during the day. There are very few soils 

 where this evil exists which may not be cured by draining and sub- 

 soil ploughing, and as it is one that oftentimes seriously lessens the 



