1857. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



28'( 



or learn a profession, or become a merchant, but it 

 may become a great thing to you ten years hence, 

 if you can have the offer repeated. Go out West 

 and try it ; go into the city and try it ; be a shoe- 

 maker and try it ; but, my word for it, a good sub- 

 stantial English education, a good substantial wo- 

 man for a wife, and the old hnmestead,will be just 

 about as good a Paradise as Adam left, if you will 

 but think so. 



It is a very little thing to be a gentleman, but it 

 is a great thing to obtain a living by that quality 

 alone. It is a little thing to have white hands, but 

 it is a great thing to make a fortune and still keep 

 them so. Yours rather littleish, N. T. T. 



Bethel, Me., April 27, 1857. 



For the New England Farmer. 



CLEARING AND DRAINING. 



Their Effect on the Atmosphere. 

 BY WILSON FLAGG. 



The ingenious Count Rum ford, who spent his 

 life in making philosophical experiments, instituted 

 a series to illustrate the "Propagation of Heat in va- 

 rious Substances." One important question to which 

 he wished to obtain an answer was this : "Does humid- 

 ity augment the conducting power of air ?" It would 

 be uninteresting to speak in detail of the process of 

 his experiments ; but he proved incontestably that 

 the conducting power of air is greatly increased by 

 humidity. This fact will serve to explain many 

 phenomena, which have always been observed, but 

 of which every one cannot give a ready explanation. 

 On a warm summer's day, it is customary to sprin- 

 kle our floor with water, for the purpose of cooling 

 the atmosphere. How can it produce this cooling 

 effect, when it must, by its evaporation, carry off a 

 portion of the heat of the floor into this very air 

 which it cools ? It may be considered that while a 

 new volume of heat is evolved by evaporation from 

 the heated floor, the increased humidity of the air, 

 and its consequent superior conducting power, 

 cause this heat to pass off rapidly into the surround- 

 ing atmosphere. The greater coolness which we 

 experience, after the wetting of the floor, is like- 

 wise caused by the increased power of the air to 

 conduct the heat from our own persons. 



The coldness of the atmosphere over wet mea- 

 dows, especially after the sun begins to decline in 

 summer, is a matter of common observation. This 

 is particularly observable when we are walking in 

 the evening after dark, over an uneven road. The 

 temperature of the air seems to correspond with 

 our altitude. When we are upon high grounds, 

 the air is warm and dry ; as soon as we descend 

 into the valleys, the air is very cool and chilly, 

 while it is moderately warm on moderate elevations, 

 or on the plains. This fact is to be explained by 

 the same principle which was applied to the former. 

 The moisture when it evaporates from the wet 

 grounds, brings along with it a great portion of the 

 heat from the surface ; and if humid air had the 

 same power of retaining heat as when it is dry, 

 these low places would be the warmest, because 

 they would be charged with the heat that rose from 

 the surface with the evaporated moisture. But 

 the air is made excessively moist by these exhala- 

 tions, its capacity for heat is proportionally dimin- 

 ished, and the heat, as it rises from the surface of 

 the ground, passes right through this damp stra- 



tum of air, and escapes into the stratum above. 

 It is not to be denied that the general atmosphere 

 is warmed by this escape of heat from the wet 

 grounds ; but this heat ascends into the atmospher- 

 ic region that lies a hundred feet or more above the 

 ground. The atmosphere surrounding the hills is 

 made warmer by this evaporation from wet places ; 

 but the air that rests immediately upon these wet 

 places is colder. 



A reasonable inference from these facts is, that 

 in order to equalize the temperature of the atmo- 

 sphere, we must pursue that system of operations 

 which will make the hills and uplands more moist 

 and wet, and the lowlands more dry. Such would 

 be the effect of covering the hills and barren eleva- 

 tions with trees, and of draining and reducing the 

 lowlands to tillage. The result would be that the 

 atmosphere surrounding the hills and uplands 

 would be more humid and cooler, from the in- 

 creased exhalation of moisture produced by the 

 leaves of trees, and that which rests upon the val- 

 leys warmer and less humid, by the drying effect 

 of tillage. The former would be more comfortable 

 in summer, and the latter both more comfortable 

 and more healthful. To say nothing, therefore, of 

 the agricultural benefits to be derived from such a 

 plan of operations, a regard for our own health, 

 and that of the community, would be a sufficient 

 motive, it seems to me, for covering the hills with 

 wood, which will increase their humidity, and for 

 clearing and draining the lowlands, to increase their 

 warmth and dryness. 



It seems to be the unanimous opinion of natur- 

 alists, philosophers and intelligent travellers, that 

 the fulness of the streams that water a country, 

 and the humidity of the atmosphere, cannot be pre- 

 served, after the mountains have been stripped of 

 their forests. Our climate suffers more than for- 

 merly with drought, many ancient streams have 

 been dried up, and the bulk of all our streams and 

 ponds has been diminished, simply from the loss 

 of the wood that formerly grew upon our hill-tops 

 and moderate elevations. Our people have just be- 

 gun to clear the forests upon the mountains, after 

 this work is completed, the mischief will have been 

 fully accomplished, and the good we have lost will 

 be irretrievable. Something must be done to pre- 

 vent this evil. If our railroads, by rendering these 

 mountain forests accessible, and by consuming 

 more than any other means of consumption, should 

 cause our mountains to be stripped of their forests, 

 without any corresponding efforts to restore them, 

 it v/ere better that the steam engine had never been 

 invented. 



If it were in the power of man to dispose of his 

 forests and his tillage, in the best manner over the 

 whole surface of a continent, there is no doubt that 

 a very effectual amelioration of climate might be 

 produced, and that the number and severity of sud- 

 den storms and whirlwinds might be prevented. 

 By covering the hills with wood, we might avoid 

 local inundations from summer rains. By precise- 

 ly similar arrangements, winds and squalls might 

 be prevented, if these conditions extended over a 

 wide surface of country. Every disturbance in the 

 equilibrium of the atmosphere, whether it consists 

 of an unequal distribution of heat, or of moisture, 

 or of electricity, tends to produce commotion. J\lnn 

 may, by hii operations upon the soil, either increase, 

 or he may diminish the original liability of the 

 country to be effected by these commotions. 



