24 



KIDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



So, too, with nature, after its winter's sleep. 

 The expansive power of water, when passing into 

 the solid state of ice, is well known. Scarcely 

 any limits can he set to its force. It has been 

 found capable of bursting a cannon filled with 

 water, and plugged up so as to leave it no other 

 means of expansion. It rends and splits huge 

 masses of rock, bringing down the giant fragments 

 of the lofty mountain cliffs into the valley below ; 

 and, in Arctic regions, frequently splitting^ ice- 

 bound rocks with a noise like thunder. Precisely 

 the same effect is produced on the smaller frag- 

 ments of disintegrated rock and organic matter, 

 which unite to form the soil from whence vegetable 

 life draws its nourishment. The soil being satu- 

 rated with moisture late in the autumn, is heaved 

 up, and pulverised by the alternate expansion and 

 contraction of frost and thaw, so as admirably to 

 fit and prepare it for the reanimation of the whole 

 vegetable kingdom in the spring. This, indeed, 

 may be styled nature's ploughing. It is the pro- 

 cess by which, over hill and valley, in wood, and 

 glen, and copse, where no instrument of man is 

 applied to aid or accelerate her operations, the 

 soil is pulverised around the roots of the grass and 

 herbage ; and of the countless thousands of plants 

 and trees which clothe the uncultivated face of 

 nature, and provide the needful stores for the 

 flocks and herds, as well as for the multitudes of 

 animal and insect life. But for this annual oper- 

 ation of the frosts of winter, some of our best 

 soils wou'd remain nearly unproductive. 



Stiff loams especially, composed for the most 

 part of an unctuous clay, present in their natural 

 state great obstacles to the labors of the agricul- 

 turist, and would appear, indeed, to be totally 

 incapable of being turned to any useful account. 

 Their extreme tenacity impedes alike the absorp- 

 tion and removal of excessive moisture during the 

 continuance of rainy weather ; while the effect of 

 a protracted drought is to make it so tough and 

 indurated, that a plant might almost as soon force 

 its tender roots into the pores of a sandstone rock, 

 as into the bed of hardened clay. With such a 

 however, the husbandman has only to enlist 



soi 



the keen winter's frosts into his service, to render 

 it a valuable recipient of the tender seeds of spring. 

 The plough is applied in the autumn, with a 

 direct view to the peculiarities of the soil. It is 

 ploughed up into furrows, so as to expose the 

 largest surface both to moisture and frost ; and 

 being then left to the operations of nature, the 

 water is received into the soil, and as it is ex- 

 panded in the process of freezing, it forces asunder 

 the adhering particles of the clay — loosening, 

 crumbling, and pulverising the whole, and render- 

 ing it peculiarly fitted to receive the seed in spring. 

 Nature may therefore be truly spoken of as re- 

 freshing herself with sleep during the apparently 

 inactive winter months. She is not dead. Vital 

 functions of the most essential character are at 

 work, producing results on which all the future 

 depends, when the re-awakened vitality of the 

 animal and vegetable kingdoms shall be again in 

 operation. 



The wisdom and power of the Creator are no 

 less remarkably apparent in the beneficial pro- 

 perties with which frost and snow are endowed, 

 for the protection of the soil and its included 

 plants against excessive cold. Few operations of , 



nature are more remarkable than this. The ice 

 binds up the soil in its iron grasp ; and, being a 

 slow conductor of heat, the frost is thereby pre- 

 vented from extending far beneath the surface, so 

 as to injure the tender fibres and roots of plants. 

 Even when it does reach and envelop them, this 

 counteracting influence still predominates, and 

 holds the winter's frosts in check, preventing the 

 temperature of the soil from falling below the 

 freezing point. 



But still further beneficial contrivances become 

 apparent in other operations of the winter's frost. 

 Its influence extends to the air, as well as to the 

 earth and water, and affects the exhaled moisture 

 floating in clouds above the earth. The rain 

 drops are accordingly frozen, and precipitated to the 

 ground in the form of snow. The woolly flakes of 

 snow, when examined under the microscope, are 

 crystallised in minute forms of extreme beauty, 

 and wrought with the utmost regularity. 

 The hail also assumes a regular crystallised form, 

 but of a totally different kind from the down-like 

 snow which falls noiselessly on the earth. The 

 latter is manifestly designed to drop without injury 

 on the naked boughs and tender plants exposed to 

 the storms of winter ; and to cover the grass and 

 herbs, and the young winter wheat, with its 

 winged flakes, without hurting their most fragile 

 shoots, or disturbing the exposed soil in its fall. 

 The sudden hail of spring or summer dashes 

 down occasionally in destructive masses, which 

 injure, break, and destroy plants, and extensively 

 damage the works of man ; but the snow-flake is 

 twenty-four times lighter than water, and so drops 

 on the face of nature like the downy coverlet 

 spread by its mother over the cradle ef the sleeping 

 babe. This also operates still more beneficially 

 in preventing the injurious influences of the frost 

 on the soil, and on its enclosed plants and seeds ; 

 so that one of the first operations of the frost is 

 thus to provide a defence agaist its own excess. 



The snow being a very imperfect conductor of 

 heat, it does not readily descend below the 

 freezing point ; and thus the soil beneath is under 

 the softest guardianship when its white covering 

 is spread abroad to protect the tender seeds and 

 bulbs, and the fresh roots of the lately germinated 

 autumn seeds. The simplest experiment suffices 

 to prove this ; for if a portion of a field is swept 

 bare of snow during a protracted frost, and after 

 this is exposed for a time to the full influence 

 of the cold, — it will be found that the frost has 

 penetrated to a considerable depth, binding the 

 whole in its iron grasp ; while another portion of 

 the same field, which has remained covered by 

 the snow, will remain totally unaffected by the 

 frost an inch or two below the surface. The 

 practical value of this will be still more apparent, 

 if the experiment is tried during very rigorous 

 cold on a field of autumn-sown wheat. The plants 

 in the part exposed will be found blighted, and 

 sometimes completely killed by the frost; while 

 the remainder of the field has escaped the same 

 noxious influence by means of its snowy covering. 



By means of the same remarkable non-conduct- 

 ing property of snow, the natives of the Arctic 

 regions are able to employ it as the material with 

 which they construct their winter dwellings ; and 

 thus enroofed only with the embedded masses of 

 frozen moisture, and with their windows glazed 



