4 VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES. 



more recent than in England, but where, owing to 

 causes whose investigation would be misplaced in 

 these pages, their progress has been much more 

 rapid, the change of climate has fully kept pace 

 with those improvements. It is within the expe- 

 rience of persons still living, to have noticed that the 

 snow, which in that country formerly began to fall 

 in November, was not wholly gone until the month 

 of April; while in the middle of summer the heat 

 was so excessive that agricultural labourers were 

 obliged to suspend their toil during four or five 

 hours in the middle of the day. At that time the 

 autumnal rains frequently descended with so much 

 violence, that the crops, which had been retarded by 

 the coldness of the spring, were prevented from 

 ripening on the high grounds, were lodged and 

 rotted on lands that were lower, and swept away by 

 the swelling of the streams over the holms and mea- 

 dows. In the same spots, at the present day, the 

 quantity of snow which usually falls during the win- 

 ter is comparatively small, appears rarely before 

 Christmas, and is gone in February, or early in 

 March. The summer heat is more uniformly distrib- 

 uted, seldom amounting to a dogree oppressive to 

 the labourer, or protracted to a term injurious to the 

 crops; while the rain which follows is neither so 

 violent in degree, nor so long continued, and hap- 

 pening when the grain is far advanced towards 

 ripeness, the injury which it does is comparatively 

 trifling. 



This mitigation of the seasons, which is wholly 

 referable to the progress of cultivation, has had 

 the happiest effect upon the health of the inhabit- 

 ants. Diseases, which formerly paid their periodical 

 visits with distressing regularity, have either been 

 wholly put to flight, or have been deprived of the 

 terrors in which they were clothed; the supply of 



