106 THE MAGAZINE OF HORTICULTURE. 



New England States, and sixty for the Lower Mississippi 

 Valley. Its distribution is very irregular, as may be seen by 

 equally accurate tables, published in the Transactions of the 

 New York State Agricultural Society, viz.: — 



" At Rochester, N. Y., rain and snow falls 31.20 inches, and 

 in 177 different days in the year. Hamilton, on high land, 

 has 34.51 inches of rain and snow which fell in 152 different 

 days. Ithaca has only 30.78 inches, and only 139 rainy and 

 sziowy days. Though less rain falls in a year at Rochester 

 than at Hamilton, there are twenty-five more wet days at 

 the first named place than the latter. The quantity of water 

 that falls in the course of the year is no sure indication of 

 distribution through the season." 



From tables published in our Magazine, carefully made up 

 hy Henry Ropes, Esq., of Salem, Mass., (Vol. XX., p. 124,) 

 from an average of 10 years, 'from Jaiuaary, 1841, to January, 

 1851, the number of rainy and cloudy days were 109 in the 

 w,ear. Consequently, at Rochester, N. Y., 31 inches of rain 

 ;ar# distributed over 177 days, while at Salem, (or Boston,) 

 43 inches are distributed over only 109 days, showing that 

 ,at Rochester they have five days on which rain falls to three 

 in Boston or Salem. These are some of the more important 

 facts in regard to the fall and distribution of rain in our exten- 

 sive country. 



And this brings us to the subject of our article, which is a 

 brief notice of a valuable paper published in the Transactions 

 of the New York State Agricultural Society, by Mr. George 

 Geddes, Civil Engineer, upon Rain, Evaporation and Filtra- 

 tion, and their bearing on agricultural pursuits. The Society's 

 gold medal was awarded for this essay, which not only sup- 

 plies many important facts in regard to the fall and distribu- 

 tion of rain, but gives , these facts a practical application, by 

 showing the agriculturist and the horticulturist how they may 

 guard against unusual droughts, which in our climate are so 

 likely to be of constant occurrence. We propose to give the 

 views of Mr. Geddes, which are deserving of the greatest 

 attention, and to offer some remarks, in order to show that 



