1876.J 



THE LANCASTER FARMEK. 



137 



IdWL-r liiiir a ccntiirv sinco tlwiii (if late years, 

 altliough llic ciHinlry aluiif; it ami ils tributa- 

 ries was then inueli more wuchIciI than at 

 present. Furly years ago tliere wa.s an almost 

 unliroUen forest along tlie Coiu'Stdga from 

 I^aneaster to ami beyoml Uinkletown ; now it 

 is nearly all cut oft, and tlie land in a high 

 state of cnltivation, anil yet tl|e stream is as 

 strong as ever. 



In 1S()8, Kngland was visite<l in the summer 

 of this year witli a dry, hot season, sneh as had 

 not been kn<iwn in thi'soutliof Kngland f(U'7tl 

 years. Theri^ was not the sliglilest trace of 

 dew at night; and tlie e.xce.ssivi^ drymss was 

 owing to the prevailing polar currents; water 

 for sluM'p hail to be charted for use from morn- 

 ing to night, while at New York large (pian- 

 tities of rain had fallen during this time. In 

 .Suotland tlie water was scarce on many farms, 

 where such a want is seUloiu felt. The clian- 

 nels of streams were dry and farmers were 

 wistfully looking for rain. Snch is the ea.se 

 very frequently while it is very warm ami dry 

 at one place, it is warm and rainy at another 

 lilace or country. 



We are very aiit to imagine that when a 

 \vint(M" is bitter cold, or a suminer unusually 

 hot, that our climate haschanged ; but this is 

 a delusion, 'fhe saiiu^ is true of hot or dry 

 seasons. In Camden, South Carolina, in the 

 year 1838, there were four mouths. May, July, 

 August, September, in which not a drop of 

 rain fell, and the number of rainy days was 

 very few, and the (piantity of rain during the 

 year e.Ktreniely small. The ti(dds and ganU'iis 

 in this place and immediate vicinity were 

 almost literally scorched. Tomatoes, beans, 

 corn, pclijier, and all vegetables were destroyed 

 as if a lire had graduallv burned them. From 

 the r.lth of March until the ITlh of Aiiril the 

 sun and moon, both at rising and setting, were 

 of a blood-red color. 



In Sunnnerville, Georgia, near Augusta, in 

 the year 1S:5'.I, the summer and autumn were 

 extremely dry. The Savannah river had not 

 been so low" for seventy years, and never 

 known to continue low so long at one time 

 before within the recollections and traditions 

 of the oldest inhabitants. Acres of its bed 

 were run out, fenced in, jiloughed and jilanted 

 in the autnmn. From the 2Utli of October to 

 the :id of November, the sun rose and set, 

 and the moon ro.se, appearing like blood-red 

 balls of lire. 



At Marietta, Ohio, in the year 18:J8, the 

 heat and drought of the sumniiu- continued 

 till the li-'d of September, when there fell a 

 little more than an inch of rain. All the 

 crops which depend upon the summer mouths 

 for their growth, as potatoes, Indian corn and 

 beans, suffered exceedingly. Fastures were 

 dried up in August, so that some farmers 

 began to feed their cattU^ and horses early in 

 September with hay. Many were subjected 

 to great inconveuieiu'e f<irlhe want of water. 

 Mill streams failed, so that many farmers 

 were obliged to take their grain lifty miles or 

 more to mills worked by steam power. 



In the year 18:jll, at Marietta, Ohio, the 

 quantity of rain and melted snow during the 

 year was a little more than :?:! inches, being 

 about '.I inches less than the mean quantity 

 for this region. Yet the distribution of rain 

 was so equal that every month had its due 

 share in such seasonable showers as to all'ord 

 a good supiily for vegetation, and crops of all 

 kinds of grain and grass were never more 

 abundant. 



VVni. C. Bryant says the streams in eastern 

 Oliio are smaller, and the weather drier than 

 fifty years ago; but had he been there in the 

 summer of IST'i, and seen the wet weather in 

 Ohio and Indiana during farvest time, and 

 the grown audsjioiled wheal, he would perhaps 

 have changed his opinion. 



In 18:!1 Lancaster county was visited with 

 eontiiuied wet weather tor fourteen days, right 

 in the midst of the grain harvest, and in con- 

 seipienee the wheat nearly all gernnnated, thus 

 destroying its glutinous (piality, making it 

 worthless for bread. In 18:i8 very dry weather 

 from .luly to Deeemlx'r. During this long 

 period very little if any rain fell; mud roads 



were six inches deep with dust; corn and po- 

 tatoes failed entirely; pastures were siMirched, 

 the air lilled with dust and gra.sshoppers. The 

 grass fields looke(l like ploweil fields; fariuers 

 Were obliged to feed their hor.ses and cows on 

 hay early in the fall. Then; has not been such 

 aclroughl in I.aiicasler county since, allhongh 

 ill the last six mouths of 1S74 no great 

 quantity of rain fell. The fretpieiit light 

 showers kept vegetation ill a vigorous condi- 

 tion, so that the fall i-rojis and pastures were 

 abundant. 



Much mori' vapor ri.ses during hot weather 

 than during cold; hence the quantity evapo- 

 rated depends in some measure upon teniliera- 

 ture. AInch more vapor arises in maritiiue 

 countries, or those interspersed with lakes, 

 than in inland countries. 



From a table of Dr. Dalton, of Uverjiool, 

 Kngland, for four years, ending in ITTo, it ai>- 

 pears that the mean annual evaporation from 

 the surface of water aiiiouiiled to nearly 157 

 inches. 



It is estimated that live inches of dew is de- 

 posited uiion the earth in ICngland in a year. 

 Xo day passes without rain in some jiart of tlur 

 earth, so that part of the rvaporated water is 

 constantly prccipitateil again. The annual 

 evaporation over the whole surface of the globe 

 is aiiont .'!") inches annually. 



Stones and .sand have a less capacity for heat 

 than the earth has, which is always somewhat 

 moist; they heat or cool therefore more rajiidlv 

 and to a greater degree. Hence the violent 

 heat of iVrabia and Africa, and tlk^ intense 

 cold of Terra del Fuego. Living vegetables 

 alter their temperature very slowly, but tlu'ir 

 evaporation is great, and if they are tall and 

 close as in forests they exclude the sun's rays 

 from earth, and shelter the winter snow from 

 the wind and the .sun. Woody countries, 

 therefore, are much colder than tho.se wiiicli 

 are cultivated. 



Eva[)oratioii takes place in plants to an in- 

 conceivable degree under certain circum- 

 stances. It is known by the experiments of 

 Dr. Hale that a sunllower plant will lose as 

 much as one pound ami fourteen ouces by 

 evaporation in twelve hour.s. In damp or wet 

 weather this evaporation is least; in hot, dry 

 weather it is greatest. 



The annual amount of evaporation from a 

 given surface of water in the interior of the 

 country is greater than that of the rain which 

 falls on the same surface, but the amount of 

 cvaiioration from the surface of the ground is 

 generallv less, |iarticularly in mouiitainousdis- 

 triets. Less vapor is given olf from the sur- 

 face of salt water than from the surface of 

 fresh water. I'erhaps as much as live times 

 more va]MU' arises from fresh water as from 

 moist earth. Water is constantly eveporated 

 from the surface of the ocean ; the amount, 

 liowevi-r, diuiinislies as we proceed from the 

 eqiiatiir tow:irds the poles. The valley of the 

 Mississippi owes its fertility principally to the 

 moisture wlii<'li iiroceeds from the (inlf of 

 Mexico and the iiiterlroiiical part of the 

 Atlantic Ocean. 



The inlhuaice of the nalurenf the .soil on 

 the climate of a country maybe inferred from 

 its greater or less power to ab.sorband radiate 

 heat, and from its cajiacity to absorb, or traii.s- 

 mit over its surface the water which may fall 

 upon it in rain or be deposiled in dew. 



The inllueiice of cultivation on the climate 

 of a country, drying up of extensive marshes 

 and systems of drainage which would evapo- 

 rate, and by the latent heat thus absorbed 

 would cool th(^ ground, is siilTcred to pass 

 through it to the drain beneath, and is thus 

 carried off without depriving the earth of a 

 large amount of heat, which would otherwise 

 be lost. 



The Andes Mountains in the trade wind 

 region stand up so high that the wind, in 

 order to cro.ss them, has to part with all its 

 moisture, and consecpienlly there is on tlie 

 west side, as in I'eru, a rainless region. 

 I'lion the lied Sea there never falls a drop of 

 rain ; it is all evaporation. 



The I'arana, the (ianges, and the Xile an- 

 nually overllow their banks. The rainy sea- 



son, which Ik periodical in these climates, 

 Hoods the rivers. From tlu'se inundations tlic 

 inhabitants derive happiness and plenty. The 

 Nile begins to ri.se for fmty days, and de- 

 creiLscs for about as many more. 



There are rivers whic-li are siiid to lose 

 themselves in chasms under the earth, and 

 (low for miles In secret and undiscovered 

 channels. What heenis to occasion the lo.s,s of 

 the Uille, the Ilhoii, and tin- .\ure, in Nor- 

 way, is the nature of thi' soil llnMiigh wliich 

 they pa.ss. It is in general iiormis and eoin- 

 liosed of thick sand. Tlu-re was a river in 

 (ireeee wliich suildeiily disappean'd in the 

 Siuid, and seemed wliolly lost ; but far avvay 

 in Sicily it rose again, undiminished, and 

 llowed on as before. The Wolga, In Knroiic, 

 is said to abound with water during the 

 months of May ainl .liiiie, but all the rest of 

 the year is .so shallow as .scarcely to cover its 

 bottom. 



Solium rivers, like llu- I'o in Kurope, and 

 the Mississippi in our country, run on higher 

 ground than the country through wliiih they 

 (low; liiit the banks made to keep them in 

 .sometimes break, wiieii the devastation is 

 great. 



l-'<it 'I'lIK I.ANi-AKIKI; FaUMRK. 



LATE FLOWERING TREES. 



Having heard of an anomalous freak in C((r- 

 tain horse-chestnut trees, on Chestniil, near 

 the corner of Duke street, in this city, this 

 morniiig, September •">, in pa.ssing along I .saw 

 panicles of (lowers ill full bloom, as tliey are 

 usnallv seen about the first of .Inne or earlier, 

 while at the same tim'e the nearly perfected 

 fruit was on other branches of the same tree. 

 I (irst noticed the situation, being alongside of 

 tl'.e turnpike road, slo|(iug westward, and 

 closely surrounded by the pavement, shelteriMl 

 from the morning sun by the buildings of .Mr. 

 (Jorrecht's store and dwelling, and open to the 

 afternoon's sun shine and northwestern wimls; 

 these aie considerations, when we recollect 

 that the ^Ks(i(/i(.s Itijiji^i-iistitiiuni, or conunon 

 Ibuse-chestnnl, is a native of .LsiVi. (The 

 Ohio Buckeye, is a dillerent tree.) Hence I 

 notic(^ the situation. The mere fact, that of 

 the develoimient of (lowers late in the season, 

 is not so rare; it frequently occurs in various 

 kinds of fruit trees; the cause isdesired. With- 

 out going into the physiological details, I will 

 siiiqily suggested or infer that a bud is a branch 

 folded 11)1 into scales and covered; these buds 

 whether lateral or terminal, are in direct coni- 

 munication with the jiitliof the tree or branch, 

 its bark and capillary vessels; "the sap ascends 

 through the whole tissueof whatever sort ; and 

 the transini.ssion is continued through it, 

 ispecially through its central portion, or the 

 pith, in the growing apex of the stem through- 

 out. But in the older parts below, the pith is 

 soon drained ofsai> ''.\' the demand above, and 

 becomes lilled with air in its place; thence- 

 forth it liears no part in the plant's 

 nourishment." This is taught by Dr. 

 (iray, in his text-book, as will a.s by all 

 close ob.servers. Now suppose that in early 

 spring, (lam told that a simular elTeet was 

 not iced t he veariireviou.s, ) t hat from some eausi' 

 of chill and" exposure to the direct rays of an 

 alteruoon sun, the equilibrium of the How o( 

 .sap is disturbed. .Vided by the prevention of 

 the morning's sun having ils inlluence, the 

 action of the sap in certain branches may be 

 stimulated, <lrawingthe nourishment from the 

 pith, and starting such buds, which elongate 

 their nodes and intcrnoiles. ami successively 

 develop the leaves. Flower and fruit In that 

 direction, during a dry spell ami exposure to 

 sunshine, may tlius become exhausted in a 

 degree, while rain, a more uniform degree of 

 heat, later in the .sea.son, will act upon the 

 latent buds, and produce a new development 

 of leaves and (lowers— while the oilier leaves 

 mav lamiuisb and wither. It is ea.sily con- 

 ceived how all this can take place as a natural 

 jirocess interrupted ; and the malady will in- 

 crea.se, and no doubt the trees will peri.sh 

 eventually. It is simply a struggle to over- 

 come conilictiiiL' dilliculties, arising from |iar- 

 tial shelter and exposure, during summer and 



