1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



43 



as it is now ; indeed, pork in New England has 

 been raised at a very small profit if any for six or 

 eight years past. The Cincinnati Prices Current 

 says : — "Within the last two weeks there have been 

 numerous contracts made for new corn, amounting 

 in the aggregate to one hundred and fifty thou- 

 sand bushels, at prices varying from thirty-one to 

 thirty-five, all to be delivered in this city before the 

 first of next January. Holders, under the influence 

 of the excited state of the market for breadstuff's, 

 and anticipating a large foreign demand for corn, 

 are now very firm, and contracts could not be made 

 below tliirty-five, and many are asking higher rates. 

 There is a better feeling on the part of hog buy- 

 ers, with an increased disposition to operate. Con- 

 tracts for two lots have been made at $6,75 for No- 

 vember delivery, and holders are now asking $7, 

 and seem pretty stiff at this rate. For December 

 delivery, $6,50 has been paid, and at this rate there 

 are, perhaps, more buyers than sellers." 



AGRICULTURAL BENEFITS OF SNOW. 



It is with some feelings of regret and discomfort, 

 that formers, as well as other men, regard the ap- 

 proach of winter. That during several months, 

 there must continue an exhausting drain upon the 

 accumulations of the year, without any replenishing 

 streams to counterbalance its eff'ects, is a fact not 

 pleasant to contemplate, especially if an individual 

 happens to be straitened in supply. Hence, when 

 a storm of snow occurs early in the season, as one 

 did in this locality, on the twenty-fifth ult., the in- 

 quiry naturally arises of what benefit is snow ? 

 We see its evil effects in the wretched state in which 

 it places our roads ; in the strained and broken 

 manner it leaves our trees, especially if it comes, as 

 in this instance, before they have been defoliated by 

 the wind and frost ; in the downcast and sorry look 

 it gives to all animated nature, man included. 



It is not our purpose to assert the A'alue of an un- 

 timely snow, any more than that of an untimely 

 frost. Any one of the phenomena of nature may 

 be attended with evil consequences, however bene- 

 ficial and necessary in a general way. Too much 

 rain or too httle, too backward a season or too for- 

 ward ; and a thousand things generally beneficial, 

 may be specially injurious. Nature works by gen- 

 eral laws, and in their impartial administration, 

 does not stop to inquire whether or not this man's 

 seed is sown, or that man's harvest is secui'e. 



Snow, in latitudes, where the temperature is suf- 

 ficiently low for it to fall, is of vital importance to 

 vegetable life. Its peculiarly porous structure ren- 

 ders it an exceedingly bad conductor of caloric; 

 and hence, when covering anything either warm or 

 cold, and greatly differing in temperature from the 

 snow itself, or from sui'rounding objects, it requires 

 a long period of time for the equilibrium to be re- 

 stored. 



If the earth becomes early covered with snow, 

 and before the ground is frozen, it will remain above 

 freezing point the entire winter, even though the at- 

 mospheric temperature should go down many de- 

 grees below zero. So decided is its protection, that 

 if the soil be penetrated witli frost to the depth of 

 several inches before the fall of snow comes on, the 



caloric of the subsoil will remove the frost, not- 

 withstanding the atmosphere has not at any time 

 risen much above freezing point. The ground had 

 been frozen like a stone before the snow fell upon 

 it, the weather continuing many weeks below freez- 

 ing point ; and yet afterwards, on removing the 

 snow, the ground was found thawed out, and easily 

 lifted with a shovel. Of course, a boy's reason was 

 given for this circumstance, nz : that the snow was 

 warm, and had thawed out the gi'ound, instead o! 

 the true one, that its non-conducting properties had 

 intercepted the radiation of the heat from the low- 

 er strata of the soil, and this, acting upon the upper 

 stratum, had removed the frost. 



Alpine plants, that outlive the severest winters of 

 mountain districts because protected by snow, have 

 perished in the comparatively warm cHmate of Eng- 

 land for want of such protection. We had a good 

 illustration of the genial influences of snow in our 

 own country last winter. The thermometer went 

 down to a point unprecedented in our history, be- 

 ing no less than twenty-two degrees below zero. 

 That was a point of depression indicated for the 

 first time in a record of sixty-seven years, and for 

 how long a period previously, it is impossible to 

 tell. Of course, the peach crop was utterly ruined, 

 and orchards, which were wont to yield hundreds 

 of bushels of splendid fruit, produced tliis year, 

 nothing but leaves. At our horticultural show, 

 however, there were exhibited several magnificent 

 specimens of peaches, which, upon inquiry, were 

 found in every instance to have been produced up- 

 on limbs that had, by a fortunate accident, been 

 bent down and covered with a snow-drift. The 

 temperature in their position did not probably fall 

 to zero, and if they could have laid upon the ground, 

 would barely have reached freezing point. The 

 earth at this severe period was mantled -with a heavy 

 fall, and we tremble at the possible consequences 

 which might have ensued in case the ground had been 

 exposed and denuded. As it was, the frost did not 

 penetrate to an unusual depth, and the wheat fields 

 and the meadows came out in the spring, fresh and 

 green from their long winter slumbers. 



Snow has been called the poor man's manure ; but 

 we are not aware that analjsis shows it to possess 

 any fructifying elements not contained in rain wa- 

 ter. The gradual manner of its melting away en- 

 ables the soil to absorb a greater portion, and thus 

 become thoroughly saturated at the season when 

 such a result is desirable. The absorption of calor- 

 ic, which becomes latent in melting snow, prevents 

 a sudden transition from the chill of winter to the 

 warmth of spring. If it were not for this, vegeta- 

 tion would start too early, and all the fruits and 

 tender plants would be nipped by vernal frosts. 

 As the seasons are now constituted, the sun must 

 at least cross the equator, and the length of days 

 exceed that of the nights, before the snow melts 

 from the hill-side, and disappears in the vale. It 

 has then performed its mission, a gentle and a mer- 

 ciful one, whatever may have been its chill and for- 

 bidding aspect in the early autumn. 



A locaUty that experiences abundant falls of snow, 

 which cover the ground uniformly through the win- 

 ter, will admit of the cultivation of many things 

 that cannot be grown in other places with no lower 

 temperature, but destitute of snow ; and many coun- 

 tries would be, without its protecting influences, 

 mere regions of waste and desolation. — Rural JVeio- 

 Yorker. 



