1856. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



501 



thousands of snakes, turtles and quadrupeds, and so 

 on up to man himself, all are alike in these par- 

 ticulars. 



Look at the lizard. There are a vast number 

 of lizards distributed over the globe, differing from 

 each other mainly in the number of their legs. 

 One kind has none. Another has hind only. An- 

 other both. One has a single toe, another has two, 

 another three, another four, another five. When 

 brought together in a museum, it is evident that 

 they are variations of the same great family. But 

 to find them you must go all over the world. For 

 erne kind you must go to Bengal, for another to 

 Australia, for a third to the Phillipine Islands, for 

 a fourth to South Africa, for a fifth to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, for a sixth to South America, for a 

 seventh to Europe, for an eighth to the United 

 States. They are scattered about the earth, wide 

 as the poles apart, and yet they form, when brought 

 together, a system that we read at a glance ! How 

 else could they have been formed, unless by an 

 Omniscient, Omnipotent, Provident Creator ? 



The development of animal life from infancy to 

 maturity, shows the same working of a single in- 

 tellect. This development during the lifetime of 

 an individual corresponds closely to the gradations 

 from lowest tohighest, of the whole series to which 

 the individual belongs. Thus in one series of ani- 

 mals, we have the lowest the Worm, next above it 

 the Crustacea, such as crabs and lobsters, with par- 

 tially developed legs and head, and next above that 

 the Insects with perfect head and six legs fully 

 formed. Now, how does the insect develop ? — 

 Why, in its first stage, it it a worm or cateri^illar. 

 In the next it is a chrysaHs closely resembling the 

 Crustacea. In the third it is a perfect Insect. It 

 goes through as many gradations in its lifetime, as 

 there are gradations below it in its existence. 

 Here, then, is thought, but thought reaching the 

 same result, through two different processes, in 

 two different series. 



Just so, the animals of former ages were differ- 

 ent from those of the present one, and the whole 

 series has been gradually developed on similar prin- 

 ciples. Just so the Crustacea now existing, exact- 

 ly resemble, in their different stages of growth, the 

 different and successive fossil Crustacea found in 

 the geological beds. The crab when but a germ, 

 is like a tri lobite, the oldest fossil found. As it 

 goes on to maturity it passes through stages each 

 of which resembles another and another fossil, 

 found in succession, each more complete than the 

 preceding. 



In the vegetable kingdom, the principle holds. 

 Leaves form regular series. They are arranged 

 according to a regular succession of numbers or 

 fractions. Consider a blade of grass. Its leaves 

 spring alternately on either side. Commencing at 

 the bottom of the stalk and going up spirally, you 

 find the second leaf on the opposite side from the 

 first, and exactly over it, the fourth over the sec- 

 ond, and so on. You go spirally half way round 

 from one to the other. 



Now take marsh grass. Its blades are arranged 

 round the stalk in the same way, but the distances 

 are difl'erent. The second blade is one-third of the 

 way around the stalk from the first. The next is 

 two-thirds of the way around, and so on. 



Take now a rosebush stem. The second leaf is 

 distant from the first, two-fifths of the way around 

 the stalk. The others follow each two-fifths far- 



ther around, until finally the sixth is just over the 

 first. 



Take again a pine tree twig. The second blade 

 is distant from the first three-eights of the way 

 around, until finally the ninth blade is exactly over 

 the first. 



Other plants have their leaves arranged each dis- 

 tant from the other five-thirteenths of the way 

 around the stalk. 



So that we have a series of fractional distances, 

 thus : — 



1-2 1-3 2-5 3-8 5-13 



These fractions, it will be seen, do not differ much 

 from each other. There are none of them less 

 than 1-3, and none of them more than 1-2. They 

 form a regularly ascending series, in which any two 

 added together will make the third. Such is the 

 uniform and careful arrangement of the countless 

 leaves of the elms above our heads, and of the pine 

 forests of yonder plains ! 



Turn now from plants to planets. Measure the 

 time in which each of them circles the sun. It is 

 here : — 



Neptune 62,600 days. 



Uranus 31,000 " 



Saturn 10,000 " 



Jupiter 4,330 " 



Asterodia 1,600 " 



Mars 680 " 



Earth 365 " 



Now examine these sums. The second it half 

 the first ; the third is one-third of the second ; the 

 fourth is two-fifths of the third ; the fifth is three- 

 eighths of the fourth ; the sixth is five-thirteenths 

 of the fifth. So that we have again precisely the 

 same fractions in the same order : — 



1-2 1-3 2-5 3-8 5-13 



Whence this strange similarity ? How can it be 

 accounted for except by the fact that the same 

 Hand adjusted the blades of grass, which set in mo- 

 tion the Orbs of the Universe ? 



For the New England Farmer. 



APPLES. 



Mr. BRO^VN: — In this part of INIassachusetts, 

 from all I can see and hear, I fear that this noble 

 fruit is likely to be very scarce this season, although 

 it is generally regarded as the "bearing year." In 

 his "Fruit Book," Mr. Cole says, "We never knew 

 a great crop in an odd year, nor a small crop in 

 even years." Eighteen hundred and fifty-six is an 

 even year, yet we are likely to have less apples in 

 this section than we have had in any past year, 

 odd or even, for a long while ; and I fear the re- 

 mark will apply to New England generally. On a 

 recent trip to Vermont, I examined the trees on the 

 way as carefully as the dust and smoke and speed 

 of a railroad train would allow, and saw but few 

 ;;pples any where. The past winter was sujjposed 

 to be favorable to an abundant supply of fruit, and 

 with the exception of apples and peaches, fruit has 

 thus far been unusually plenty. One of your cor- 

 respondents proposes to distinguish this as the 

 blackberry year. In Vermont whole hill-sides were 

 red with raspberries. 



What, then, ails the apples ? Some people now 

 assign unfavorable weather at the time of blossom- 

 ing as the cause of the failure. In Vermont it was 

 said there were but few blossoms. Here, it was 



