ATMOSPHERIC EFFECTS ON VEGETATION. 249 



able always satisfactorily to see why a tid of good for- 

 tune should flow at the desire of one, and ebb from the 

 wishes of another ; yet many of the occurrences of 

 human life are perhaps not so extraordinary as they are 

 made to appear by the suppression of facts, or our igno- 

 rance of circumstances. 



The effects of atmospheric changes upon vegetatio 

 have been noticed in the rudest ages: even the simplest 

 people have remarked their influence on the appetites 

 of their cattle, so that to " eat like a rabbit before rain " 

 has become proverbial, from the common observance of 

 the fact : but the influence of the electric fluid upon 

 the common herbage has not been, peihaps, so gene- 

 rally perceived. My men complain to-day that they 

 cannot mow, that they " cannot any how make a hand 

 of it," as the grass hangs about the blade of the scythe, 

 and is become tough and woolly ; heavy rains are falling 

 to the southward, and thunder rolls around us ; this in- 

 dicates the electric state of the air, and points out the 

 influence that atmospheric temperature and condition 

 have upon organized and unorganized bodies, though 

 from their nature not always manifested, all terrestrial 

 substances being replete with electric matter. In the 

 case here mentioned, it appears probable that the state 

 of the air induced a temporary degree of moisture to 

 arise from the earth, or to be given out by the air, and 

 that this moisture conducted the electric fluid to the 

 vegetation of the field. Experiments prove that elec- 

 tric matter discharged into a vegetable withers and de- 

 stroys it ; and it appeared to me at the time, but I am 

 no electrician, that an inferior or natural portion of this 

 fluid, such as was then circulating around, had influ- 

 enced my grass in a lower degree, so as not to wither, 

 but to cause it to flag, and become tough, or, as they 

 call it in some counties, to "wilt;"* the farina of the 

 grass appeared damper than is usual, by its hanging 

 about the blades of the scythes more than it commonly 

 does; the stone removed it, as the men whettecl them, 

 just at the edge, but they were soon clogged again. As 

 the thunder cleared away, the impediments became less 

 obvious, and by degrees the difficulties ceased. The 



* See note HH, appendix. 



