256 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



June 



Hectolitres. 



Scarcity... 1816 to 1821 Excess of Imports... 6,247,000 



rientv ..1822 to 1827 " iJxports... 1,2d8,000 



sSy:..18>8tol832 " Imports... 9 528.000 



Plenty .. 1833 to 1837 " Kxports... 944,000 



MUed ...ISaS to 1842 " Imports... 1,126,000 



Scarcity... 1S43 to 1847 " Imports... 18,697,000 



Plenty . . .1848 to 1852 " Kxports. . . 13,188,000 



"Tlio hectolitre contains 22 imperial gallons, or 

 three hectolitres are a tritie more than a quarter. 

 It will be observed that the importation of wheat 

 in France, in years of scarcity, is very small Avhen 

 'compared with ours. This, in the period from 

 1843 to 1847, while wheat averaged 59s.— a very 

 high price in that country — the whole imports in 

 the five years were only 20,101,000 hectolitres, 

 from which, deducting 1,164,000 of exports, there 

 remained for consumption only 18,097,000, or 

 0,400,000 qrs. In the period of scarcity, from 

 1810 to 1821, when the price was 54s. 5d., the 

 imports were only 0,247,000 hectolitres in six 

 years, or about 345,000 qrs. annually. 



"The five years from 1847 to 1852 were years 

 of abundance both in France and Britain. Sup- 

 posing, then, that the change takes place quin- 

 quennially, we should now be at the commence- 

 ment of a period of scarcity , and that the present 

 year fulfils this character is manifest from the 

 state of the markets on both sides of the Channel. 

 The French average for the first two weeks of No- 

 vember, as given in the Monit'mr a few days ago, 

 was 29.97 per hect. , or 08s. 1 Id. per qr. — a famine 

 price in France; and the British average for the 

 whole of November was 71s. Id., marking rather 

 severe dearth. It is, therefore, a question of some 

 importance, whether we are to regard the present 

 deficient crop as a pure 'casuality,' an evil which 

 an opposite casuality the next year's abundance 

 may redeem, or as the first of a series of bad crops. 

 In our opinion, the hypothesis of a five years' 

 cycle, embracing the latter conclusion, though not 

 established beyond challenge, lias a sufficient pro- 

 bability to render it worthy of entering into the 

 calculations of farmers, corn merchants, contrac- 

 tors for public works, and even ministers of state. 



"A hypothesis offered to explain anomalous or 

 seemingly discordant physical fiicts is more readi- 

 ly accepted when we can trace in it the operation 

 of some physical cause. In the Scotsman of the 

 7th of September, 1845, we gave an account of a 

 memoir published by Schwabe, a German astrono- 

 mer, on the spots of the sun, in Avhich he main- 

 tained their periodicity — that they increased for a 

 certain term, then diminished for an equal term, 

 and that the interval between the maximum and 

 minimum was about five years, so that the cycle 

 was completed in about ten. This conclusion 

 rested on the observations of eighteen years, which 

 (as Colonel Sabine informed the British Asaocia 

 lion at Belfast) have been since extended to twenty- 

 six years, and with tlie same result. Now, as the 

 light and heat of the sun are obviously essential 

 to the success of grain crops, it occurred to Gau- 

 tier, a French or Swiss man of sciencs, to compare 

 Schwabe's cycle of the solar spots with the results 

 of the harvests in France as shown by the price of 

 com ; and he found that, taking the years in 

 groups, to eliminate accidental influences, those 

 in which the eun had few or no spots coincided 

 with years of abundance, and those in which the 

 spots were numerous with years of scarcity. AVe 

 have here, then, a glimpse of a physical cause or 



account for these alternating periods of scarcity 

 and plenty, which experience has forced upon the 

 attention of our farmers. It is true that the spots 

 of the sun cover but a very small portion of his 

 surface at any time, but the decrement of heat in 

 a bad year is also small compared with the whole 

 quantity which the earth receives from the sun ; 

 ;ind it is not improbable that, besides causing a 

 direct loss of light and heat proportioned to their 

 size, spots Avhen abundant may indicate a general 

 enfeeblement of the heating and illuminating 

 power of the whole surface of the sun. 



"The progress of science is constantly adding to 

 our knowledge of the latent ties Avhich connect the 

 most distant parts of nature. Those minute de- 

 viations from the normal position of the magnetic 

 needle, called its diurnal variation, were dis- 

 covered a hundred years ago, and gave plain indi- 

 cations of solar influence. It w^as only known 

 within these few years that these variations were 

 tliemsolves subject to variation — were greater in 

 some years than in others — and that another class 

 of phenomena, called 'magnetic storms,' sudden 

 and seemingly unaccountable disturbances of the 

 needle, di.sclosed themselves. It is now found that 

 these are periodical also. To use the words of 

 Colonel Sabine, 'there is a periodical variation or 

 inequality affecting alike the magnitude of the 

 diurnal variation, and the magnitude and fre- 

 quency of the distui-bances of storms, and the cycle 

 or period of the inequality appears to extend about 

 ten of our years, the maximum and minimum 

 being separated by an interval of about five years." 

 Perhaps bye-and-bye the hope and prospects of 

 the husbandmen may be read in the vil)rations of 

 the compass." 



Fact veksus Theory. — It is a common notion, 

 that to have good crops the seed must be often 

 changed, and many farmers relying on this theory, 

 sow seed that is "far fetched and dear bought.'.' 



In a conversation, last evening, with Mr. Jona- 

 tlian Nelson, of this city, well known here as a 

 substantial farmer and S reliable man, ke in- 

 formed me that he helped reap a field of rye, the 

 past summer, of a little less than one acre and a 

 half, yielding thirty-eight and a half bushels of 

 excellent quality ; that he has helped reap fifty- 

 five successive harvests of rye on tiie same farm, 

 owned by his father, (the late Deacon Nelson) 

 and himself, that in all that time the seed had never 

 becnchangid ; that the first of those fifty-five har- 

 vests was from seed raised on the same farm by 

 the former owner, and that he knew not how long 

 the process of independent husbandry had been 

 carried on l)y his predecessor. 



Facts and theories often disagree but nature is 

 constant and true to herself. — Worccstei- Spy. 



To THE Trustees of the Middlesex Agricul- 

 tural SociTEY. — The Commissioner of Patents has 

 forwarded to the Secretary of this Society, under 

 the frank of the Hon. T.\ppan Wentworth, a 

 package of the improved King Philip or Brown 

 coi-n, for each Trustee, which may be had on ap- 

 plication at thjs office, or at the residence of the 

 Secretary in Concord. Sijion Brown, 



May 10, 1854. Secretary. 



