ARTIFICIAL RAIJSS. 511 



1. As will naturally be presumed, the fallows were set 

 on fire in dry weather; and as several hours, or even a day 

 or two were requisite for the work, no fair prospect of rain 

 was waited for, before the fires were set. Often, if there 

 was a prospect of rain soon, i. e. too soon for the success of 

 the fire, it was deferred, till dry weather again returned. 



2. It was customary for those who had fallows to burn, 

 to say, on seeing smokes from burning fallows, rising in 

 different directions ; " We must put fire to our fallow, for I 

 see other folks are burning theirs; and we shall soon have 

 rain; for it always rains soon after people begin to send 

 up their smokes." 



3. Fallows on fire, if extensive, did generally continue to 

 bum till extinguished by showers of rain. Smaller fires, of 

 course, would subside by exhausting the combustibles, be- 

 fore a change of weather. These storms or showers, as 

 nearly as I can now say, were generally accompanied by 

 lightning and thunder; and usually passed from the south 

 west to the north east. 



4. It frequently occurred that while some were burning 

 their fallows, others were engaged in haying and harvesting. 

 When hayers and harvesters observed the smokes of fallow 

 fires, they expected rain soon, and secured their crops, or 

 governed themselves accordingly. 



5. Soon after the snows were off in the spring, I think 

 generally the latter part of April, or the early part of May, 

 fires sometimes, nay, often, broke out in the woods, raging 

 furiously, sweeping in a few hours over thousands of acres 

 of uncultivated wood land. These fires generally set to- 

 wards the hills and mountains, climbing them much more 

 rapidly than they would run on level or low ground. The 

 air would set powerfully towards the hill tops, heaving up 

 vast columns of smoke above them. Clouds soon after 

 formed, and rain succeeded, to the joy of an anxious popu- 

 lation, for these fires often did much damage. 



