1861. 



NEW ENGLAND FARMER. 



403 



much of it given as will be eaten with a good ap- 

 petite. Under this process we believe that pork 

 may be profitably raised by paying eighty cents, 

 and perhaps one dollar per bushel, for a consid- 

 erable portion of the food which the animals are 

 to eat. They must be kept dry and warm in win- 

 ter, and cool, with a moist place to go to, in sum- 

 mer. 



For the New England Farmer. 

 REMARKS ON" CLIMATE. 



Mr. Editor : — I have been much interested 

 in reading several articles in the Farmer within 

 the past year on climate. In the Far/tier of Dec. 

 15th, I find an article entitled "Some remarkable 

 facts in relation to climate, compiled from Meyen," 

 in which the writer gives many interesting facts 

 concerning the variations of climate, but does 

 not trace those facts to their primary causes. It 

 is a well known fact that the eastern parts of con- 

 tinents are colder than their western parts in the 

 northern hemisphere, but the result is partially 

 reversed in the southern. All these are the ef- 

 fects of natural causes, and can be philosophical- 

 ly explained, and made clear to the human un- 

 derstanding. The primary cause of differences 

 in climate consists in the configuration of conti- 

 nents, islands and seas. But the cause of all 

 climate lies in two substances which envelop the 

 earth, viz. : air and water, modified by the rays of 

 the sun, the great producer of activity in these 

 elements. It is by a complication of causes, act- 

 ing upon these two substances, that such an ex- 

 treme variety of climate is produced. Were the 

 whole surface of our globe level, and of equal 

 color and density, whether it consisted of earth 

 or water, it would present us with a climate uni- 

 form in its character, and all isothermal lines 

 would correspond with the parallels of latitude. 

 But this is not so. Our globe is broken, and 

 some parts are thrown up to a great height, while 

 other parts are sunk to corresponding depths, and 

 the ocean levels up nearly two-thirds of the sur- 

 face of the globe with a vast body of water. Be- 

 neath this body of water, the floor of the ocean 

 is as uneven as the land above the ocean, and like 

 it produces a striking effect on climate. To de- 

 scribe this great regulator of climate, with per- 

 fect accuracy, requires a geographical knowledge 

 of the whole bottom of the ocean, as well as the 

 land — a knowledge which is but imperceptibly 

 possessed by the human race. Yet the very su- 

 perficial knowledge which we do possess enables 

 us in a measure to unfold the mysteries of nature 

 to a very great extent, and show their effects on 

 the various parts of the globe. 



The rays of the sun, that great motive power 

 of earth, produces currents in the ocean as well 

 as in the air, to an unlimited extent. These oce- 

 anic currents have definite bounds, while the sur- 

 face of the earth remains unchanged, always run- 

 ning in the same courses through the great waste 

 of waters, and forever producing the same effects 

 on the land. These currents are deflected from 

 their regular courses by the continents, and thrown 

 into distant regions of the earth, far from their 

 natural courses. The cause of all these currents 

 in air or ocean lies in the sun. The direct rays 



of the sun, on entering our atmosphere vertically 

 at the equator, produce an attraction or expansion 

 of all substances coming within their influence, 

 and permeate all substances with heat, especially 

 at the surface of the earth, consequently making 

 them lighter. For it is a well known fact that 

 heat expands nearly all substances, and by heat- 

 ing the waters of the ocean it gives the atoms a 

 tendency to rise and flow off in the direction of 

 their motive power — the sun. Were there no 

 impediment, this would cause a universal current 

 from east to west, and a rising of the waters at 

 the equator. These waters as they flow westward- 

 ly are deflected by the eastern shores of the con- 

 tinents, and sent off towards the polar regions, 

 to modify the climates of the colder parts of the 

 earth. Thus there is a great current that flows 

 around the earth from east to west, which has 

 neither beginning nor end, but is an everlasting 

 circle or motion in the watery element. 



Suppose we begin to trace this current from 

 the western shore of Africa. It passes along 

 the equator in a peaceful and undisturbed man- 

 ner, until it comes in contact with the eastern 

 shore of South America, at a point where its main 

 current is deflected northward, where it passes 

 onward through the Caribbean Sea and enters the 

 Gulf of Mexico. Here is the great heating caul- 

 dron of tropical waters, giving life and fertility 

 to the surrounding countries. Here it meets with 

 an impassable barrier to its western progress in 

 the high lands of Mexico. By the rush of wa- 

 ters into this basin they are consequently forced 

 outward, after going the circuit of the gulf, and 

 the only channel for its outlet is between the 

 Florida Reefs and Cuba. It is then deflected 

 northward by that high range of oceanic moun- 

 tains of which the Bahama Isles are the summits. 

 It now assumes the name of the Gulf Stream, 

 and passes between the United States coast and 

 a range of oceanic mountains, which raise their 

 lofty summits above the waters, and form the 

 Bermuda Isles. 



It seems by the Report of the Superintendent 

 of the United States Coast Survey, for 1859, that 

 there is a ridge in the bottom of the ocean, from 

 Cape Florida to Bemini, being a continuation of 

 the mountains forming the Bahama Isles, and ex- 

 tending to the peninsula of Florida, having a 

 depth of 350 fathoms, over which the Gulf Stream 

 passes in its onward course. At this place the 

 bottom shows an unevenness in form, over which, 

 in the deep corrugations, the cold polar current 

 passes beneath the hot waters of the Gulf Stream, 

 and even this cold water is traced as far as the 

 Tortugas ; but is everywhere overflowed by the 

 hot waters of the Gulf. At the Sambrero Sta- 

 tion, it is strongly marked at depths varying from 

 70 to 100 fathoms. From Cape Florida, the bot- 

 tom gradually sinks southwardly to 800 fathoms, 

 five miles off Havana. The Gulf Stream, as it 

 passes to the north, recedes gradually from the 

 coasts, until it is further deflected by the Banks 

 of Newfoundland. East of this, a branch crosses 

 the ocean, and passes down the western coast of 

 Africa, again to join the current of the tropical 

 waters, and perform the same revolution over 

 again. Within the circuit of this current lies the 

 Sargasso Sea — that great floating meadow of sea- 

 weeds which so vividly occupied the imagination 

 of Christopher Columbus, before his discovery of 



