1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



139 



quantities of heat and moisture. And in rising 

 up over the western coasts of continents and 

 islands, the watery vapor which they contain is 

 condensed into mists and clouds, and a part of 

 its latent heat becomes sensible, making the cli- 

 mate warm and humid. But when these winds 

 have passed the highest point of the continent or 

 island, they have lost a great part of their heat 

 and moisture, and in descending the eastern side 

 of the continent or island they expand and ab- 

 sorb both heat and moisture, which tends to make 

 the climate cold and dry. In this way, the \vest 

 winds warm the western side of the continent, and 

 cool the eastern side. It is stated that in the 

 southern hemisphere the difference of climate 

 between the eastern and western coasts of conti- 

 nents and islands is decreased, the eastern coasts 

 being warmer than the western. 



But the prevailing winds of the southern hem- 

 isphere are from the east and south-east, conse- 

 quently they warm the eastern coasts, and cool 

 the western coasts. While the coasts are warmed 

 in the winter by the condensation of watery va- 

 pors contained in the atmosphere, and by the re- 

 flection of heat from the clouds, and cooled in 

 summer by the large quantity of rain which falls, 

 carrying off a great part of the heat through the 

 rivers to the ocean, (to be absorbed and brought 

 back again in the winter by tJie winds,) and by 

 thick masses of cloud which overspread the sky 

 a considerable portion of the time, preventing 

 the rays of the sun from over heating the ground, 

 the interior, especially places protected from the 

 prevailing winds by ranges of mountains, or oth- 

 er high tracts of land, (unless separated from 

 these by large lakes or inland seas,) has a dry 

 atmosphere, and is scorched in the summer by 

 the unobstructed rays of the sun, and frozen by 

 excessive radiation in the winter. 



Abner L. Butterfield. 



West Dummerston, Vt., 1861. 



THE LAEGE OX. 



John Sanderson of Bernardston, Mass., is the 

 owner, grower and feeder of one of the largest, 

 fattest and most perfect animals of the cattle kind 

 ever seen in Massachusetts. Taller and more 

 bony oxen may have been, but none better made 

 and developed of corresponding weight. He girts 

 10^ feet, is five feet 8 inches high, is 9^ feet from 

 the centre of the head between the horns, to the 

 roots of the tail, is 3 feet 5 inches across the hips, 

 is 3i feet thick from point to point of shoulder, 

 is 4 feet in his greatest thickness forward of the 

 hips, is 7^ feet from rump to point of shoulder, 

 and is 10 inches around the fore leg above the 

 ankle. Standing in a natural position, 3^ feet 

 was measured from outside to outside of track of 

 fore feet. He has not lately been brought to the 

 scales, owing to the inconvenience of getting 

 about, but his weight is adjudged about 3,500 

 pounds. The histoi'y of this grade Durham giant 

 is briefly this : — He fared well when a calf, and 

 ■we rather think sucked a free milker ; was work- 

 ed till he was 3^ years old, had common pasture 

 one year after, and has been fed in a barn ever 

 since. He was seven years old last March. His 

 daily grain feed at present is 12 quarts, half oats 

 and half corn ground together. — Sprinyjield Be- 

 publican. 



LEGISIiATIVB AGKICITI.TUBAL SOCIETY. 



[Reported for the N. E. Farmer by Thomas Bradley.] 



The fifth meeting of this Society was held in 

 the Representatives' Hall on Monday evening, 

 when the audience completely filled the place, 

 rendering it necessary to open the galleries to 

 accommodate the crowd, a large proportion 

 being ladies. A number of specimens of flax 

 cotton, or fibrilia, as it is called, together with 

 goods manufactured from it, and the model of a 

 machine for breaking the straw from the field, 

 were on exhibition, and were examined with much 

 interest by those present, among whom were a 

 number of extensive manufacturers of cotton and 

 woollen goods. 



Mr. Freeman Walker, of North Brookfield, 

 called the meeting to order, and introduced Mr. 

 S. M. Allen, as the Chairman of the evening. 

 Having announced the subject for discussion, 

 "Flax — to be cultivated in the North as a substi- 

 tute fo7' cotton," Mr. Allen addressed the meeting 

 as follows : 



By our own individual experience, as well as 

 from universal history, we learn that agriculture 

 has ever been the great foundation stone of na- 

 tional prosperity. She is the parent of manufac- 

 tures, and the grandparent of commerce. When 

 this great family acts in harmony with the natu- 

 ral law, the ship of state glides smoothly on, laden 

 with fruitful blessings, and bestowing them lib- 

 erally to needy humanity, — but when either mem- 

 ber becomes reckless, and wanders from the pre- 

 scribed path, and sets up its own supremacy, the 

 equilibrium becomes destroyed, and death and 

 decay are inevitable. Nations have risen to thrive 

 under the proper use of the many blessings which 

 these three institutions vouchsafe to humanity, 

 but have fallen under the misuse of them never 

 to rise again. The farms of the United States 

 are the great reservoirs from which we derive our 

 bread and meat, and the farm-houses are the nur- 

 series for recuperating the physical and mental 

 energies of metropolitan life. 



The agricultural resources of any country must, 

 of necessity, be versatile, as neither the soil or 

 climate can be the same. The geological forma- 

 tions were originally different, and the influences 

 of cultivation remove them still further apart ; 

 while the climate in different latitudes will pro- 

 duce a different plant in the same soil, and the 

 humidity of the atmosphere, and the electrical and 

 magnetic influences pervading it will produce a 

 different plant in the same latitude. These in- 

 fluences are changing every hour, through the 

 whole country, under the use of the plow, the 

 hoe and the axe, which level the forests and open 

 the soil to use and profit. 



The treatment of lands, the seed sown, and the 



