524 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Nov. 



garden, in part. I washed the trees with a weak 

 ley, taking ofT all foreign substances, about the 

 time they were in blossom. When a sheep or 

 lamb died upon the farm, they were immediately 

 buried with great care around the pear trees. _ In 

 August of '52 they commenced to grow rapidly, 

 previous to that they had grown but Httle. In 

 '53 the growth was most rapid and vigorous. In 

 '54, the trees set full of fruit, but only a few were 

 left to grow and mature, but the trees grew with 

 great rapidity, and were vigorous and healthy. In 

 July, '55, they had attained a height of more than 

 twelve feet, and were loaded with fruit, fair and of 

 large size. One little Seckel that had been injured 

 by one of the horses, I had nursed with great care, 

 by digging a trench all around, just outside the 

 roots, and filled it with rich compost, was loaded 

 down with fruit. The Bartletts and Seckles were 

 the heaviest in fruit, but all were loaded with the 

 fairest fruit I ever saw. The orchard was exposed 

 to all winds. They were washed once a year. The 

 soil was a rich loam, slightly mixed with clay. 

 JVew Bedford, Sept., 1856. 



THE RAIN-POWER. 



The rain-power is steam-power. Older than Ful- 

 ton, Watt, or the Marquis of Worcester, it has op- 

 erated from the beginning, since the day when first 

 the sunbeam dallied with the wave, and the rain- 

 bow was woven for their bridal robe. We may 

 judge something of the grandeur of this apparatus, 

 when we reflect tliat all the rivers in the world are 

 only the overplus of its stores, only the drippings 

 from its vast magazines, as its bounties are distribu- 

 ted over the land. Rivers are of course fed by the 

 rains, and represent the excess of moisture deposi- 

 ted on the country which they drain. All the wa- 

 ter-power in the world — the stupendous Niagara, 

 the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Nile, the Ganges ; 

 every valuable or invaluable water privilege that 

 floats Yankee logs, or chokes with Yankee sawdust ; 

 each and all, are but the ivsidue of the steam pow- 

 er which waters the earth. All gain their force 

 from the labors of steam. In some far ofl' sea, the 

 power of sun-heat lifted the steaming vapor high in 

 air. Leagues away the cloud floats before the winds, 

 still upheld by heat, till the cold air benumbs the 

 fingers of the great water-carrier, and forces him to 

 drop it in rain. The amount of the yearly fall of 

 rain varies from twenty-three feet, in some parts of 

 South America ; down to nothing, on some desert 

 portions of the globe. Our New England average 

 is thirty-eight inches. The mean for the entire sur- 

 face of the globe is about five feet. This would re- 

 quire a body of water, as long as from Boston to 

 Liverpool, one thousand miles wide, and two hun- 

 dred and twenty-four feet in depth, each year. * 

 This mass of water is each year hoisted up hun- 

 dreds of feet into the air, carried, some of it thou- 

 sands of miles, and then let down again where it is 

 wanted. "What a powerful engine is the atmo- 

 sphere ! and how nicely adjusted must be all the 

 cogs and wheels, and springs and pinions of this 

 exquisite piece of machinery, that it never wears 

 out, nor fails to do its work at the right time, and 

 in the right way." — Universalist Quarterly. 



* Physical Geography of the Sea, sec. 145. Prof. Mau- 

 ry has, we think, erred in his calculation, by failing to sub- 

 ract the breadth of larid which lies under the tropics, say ten 

 housand miles. 



HOW THE HUMAN BODY KEEPS 

 WARM. 



The phenomena of heat in the body is something 

 like that produced by the combustion of fuel, such 

 as coal ; only in the body the combustion is slow, 

 and the heat far lower than that of flame. The 

 act of breathing is very like the bellows of a sm.ith, 

 and our food is very much the same as the coals 

 which he puts upon his fire. It is probable that 

 some heat may be* produced in the various secret- 

 ing organs of the body by the chemical action 

 which takes place in them. From these two 

 sources animal heat is probably derived. It is pos- 

 itively certain that the blood is heated at least one 

 degree of Fahrenheit in passing through the lungs; 

 and that arterial blood is warmer than venous. — 

 Most of the phenomena which occur in the produc- 

 tion of heat may be explained by attributing it to a 

 combination or union of the oxygen of the air with 

 the carbon of the blood in the lungs. 



This supply of animal heat enables the body to 

 resist the fatal effects of exposure to a low temper- 

 ature. In the polar regions the thermometer often 

 falls to 108 or 109 degrees below zero ; and yet 

 the power of evolving heat, possessed by our bodies, 

 enables us to resist this degree of cold. The tem- 

 perature of oiu* bodies in that region is about the 

 same that it would be were they in the regions 

 near the equator. The thermometer, if plunged 

 into the blood of a man in both situations men- 

 tioned, would indicate about the same. Our bodies 

 have nearly the same temperature in both places; 

 because, so to speak, and it is not very absurd, the 

 combustion or fire in the lungs gives out more heat, 

 it burns with greater intensity in polar regions 

 than in the equatorial. We all know tliat a large 

 fire will Avarm our rooms, no matter how cold it 

 may be. We can give our rooms the same tem- 

 perature in winter that they have in summer, if we 

 regulate our fires accordingly. A little more fuel 

 is all that is requisite for that purpose. Nature has 

 so ordered that when our bodies are in a cold tem- 

 perature, we inspire more air than when tliey are 

 in a warm temperature. In other words, she com- 

 pels us to take in more fuel, and increase the com- 

 bustion in the lungs. 



The Esquimaux eats blubber, which is mostly all 

 carbon, and the Laplanders drink plenty of grease. 

 In warm countries, the food of the Laplander would 

 kill the negro, and food of the natives of the West 

 Indies would not be able to keep the Esquimaux 

 from perishing with cold. 



The temperature of the human body, and of 

 most warm-blooded animals, is from 98 to 100 de- 

 grees Fahrenheit, and is affiected but a few degrees 

 by any variation of that of tlie surrounding atmo- 

 spere. Animals are warm-blooded when they can 

 preserve nearly an equal temperature, in despite of 

 the atmosperic vicissitudes from heat to cold and 

 from cold to heat. They have a temperature of 

 their own, independent of atmospheric changes. 



The time will soon arrive when thicker clothing 

 must be worn by our citizens at the North. They 

 must line their vests well along the back bone, and 

 I)rovide against freezing. It is a fact that warm 

 clothes tend to save footl in proportion to the cold 

 of the atmosphere. This is the reason why cattle 

 that are well housed consume less food, and keep 

 in better condition, than those which are shelter- 

 less and exposed. 



