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NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



Jan. 



great deal of pains to investigate this subject. It 

 was declared by workmen who were employed in 

 excavating underneath the snow, that the earth 

 which is usually penetrated by frost to the depth of 

 10 or 12 inches, was last winter covered only by a 

 mere incrustation. Indeed, we observed this more 

 than once ourselves. 



"The snows," says Count Rumford, "which cover 

 the surface of the eartli in winter, in high latitudes, 

 are doubtless designed by an all provident Creator, 

 as a garment to defend it against the piercing winds 

 from the polar regions which prevail during the 

 cold season. 



"These winds, notwithstanding the vast tracts of 

 continent over which they blow, retain their sharp- 

 ness, as long as the ground they pass over is cov- 

 ered with snow; and it is not till meeting with the 

 ocean, that they acquire, from a contact with its 

 waters, the heat which the snows prevent their ac- 

 quiring from the earth, the edge of their coldness 

 is taken off, and they gradually die away and are 

 lost. 



"The winds are always found to be much colder 

 when the ground is covered with snow, than M'hen 

 it is bare, and this extraordinary coldness is by 

 many supposed to be communicated to the air by 

 snow ; but this is an erroneous opinion ; for these 

 winds are in general much colder than the snow 

 itself. They retain their coldness, iecawse the snow 

 prevents them from being icarmcd at the expense of 

 the earth; and this is a striking proof of the use of 

 snows, in preserving the heat of the earth during 

 the winter in cold latitudes. 



"It is remarkable that these winds seldom blow 

 from the poles directly towards the equator, but 

 from the land towards the sea. Upon Ihe eastern 

 coast of North America, the cold winds come from 

 the north-west ; but upon the western coast of Eu- 

 rope, they blow from the north-east. 



"That they should blow towards those parts 

 where they can most easily acquire that heat they 

 are in search of, [in the efforts of nature to pro- 

 duce an atmospheric equilibrium] is not extraordi- 

 nary ; and that they should gradually cease to die 

 away upon being warmed by contact with the wa- 

 ters of the ocean, is likewise agreeable to the na- 

 ture and causes of their motion; and if I might be 

 allowed a conjecture, respecting the principal use 

 of the seas, or the reason why the proportion of 

 water upon the surface of our globe is so great com- 

 pared to that of the land, it is to maintain a more 

 equal temperature in the different climates, by heat- 

 ing or cooling the winds, which at certain periods 

 blow from the great continents." — Essays. 



As an illustration of the truth of this remark by 

 the learned and observing Count, the farmer, all 

 through New England, might point to his yoimg 

 fruit trees, most of them leaning to the east, by 

 the prevailing and strong north-west winds, which 

 give them that tendency before their roots have ta- 

 ken sufficient hold to keep them in an upright po- 

 sition. Some careful persons place props on the 

 easterly side of choice trees to prevent their get- 

 ting out of the perpendicular. It ought to be some 

 compensation to the orchardist who sees his trees a 

 little out of shape, to remember that the winds are 



on errands of love, and will faithfully perform their 

 mission, though they may touch him a little rudely 

 as they pass. 



There are many species of plants that vegetate 

 under the snow, in high northern latitudes. Among 

 these may be found the land moss. "This moss, 

 (says Dr. Darwin) vegetates beneath the snow, 

 where the degree of heat is always about 40° : that 

 is, in the middle between the freezing point and 

 the summer heat of the earth : and is for many 

 months the sole food of the reindeer, who digs fur- 

 rows in the snow to find it, and as the milk and 

 flesh of this animal are almost the only sustenance 

 which can be procured during the long winters of 

 the higher latitudes, this moss may be said to sup- 

 port some millions of mankind." 



But in our own latitude, when the snow falls so 

 early as to cover the earth before it has become 

 frozen, all the perennial plants slowly vegetate un- 

 der the snow ; their roots send some new rootlets 

 into the earth, and are thus prepared to vegetate 

 with extraordinary quickness, on the arrival of 

 spring. The rapidity of vegetation that occurs on 

 the melting of the snows in the arctic regions is 

 undoubtedly attributable to this cause ; and not to 

 the severe cold to which they have been exposed. 

 The plants during winter, while covered with a deep 

 bed of snow, are constantly increasing in vitality ; 

 but when exposed, as in open winters in our own 

 latitude, to alternate freezing and tkawing, the 

 plants become exhausted of their vitality, and when 

 spring opens, they vegetate slowly, because they 

 cannot all at once recover from the injuries they 

 have received from alternate heat and cold. 



This explains why our winter grains — such as 

 wheat and rye — usually flourish so well after a win- 

 ter when the ground has been constantly covered 

 with snow ; for as we have already observed, the 

 plants have been all the time increasing in vitality, 

 and when exposed in the spring, are green, vig- 

 orous, and start at once into a rapid growth. — 

 Some critical observers have also thought that 

 voung fruit trees, during such a winter, continue 

 more plump, and are in better condition in the 

 spring. It is certain that the sharp winter winds 

 rob some plants of their mc^isture, and that slightly 

 covering half-hardy shrubs, and such fruit plants, 

 as the raspberry and blackberry, with leaves or earth, 

 has the same effect as a covering of snow. 



It is not unusual in our climate for quails and 

 partridges to be buried in the snow, sometimes 

 during several days; in this way they are pre- 

 served from the severity of the storm while it con- 

 tinues ; after which they emerge into the light and 

 air. Sometimes a thick incrustation of ice upon 

 the surface prevents their escape and causes them 

 to perish. These are a few of the uses and influ- 

 ences of Snoiv— hut the subject is worthy of fur- 

 ther and careful consideration. 



