394 
Meteorology . 
furnace,  and  dart  warmth  northwards  across  Europe.  Germany 
lying  nearer  to  the  centre  of  #this  burning  wilderness  becomes 
warmer  than  England,  which  is  now  also  cooled  comparatively 
by  the  sea  that  warmed  it  before.  So  that  whereas  in  winter 
the  more  you  advanced  east  towards  Russia  the  deeper  became 
the  snow,  now  you  find  it  more  and  more  sultry.  Hence,  Hock 
is  grown  in  the  latitude  of  Cornwall.  The  lines  of  equal  tem- 
perature now  run  up  in  the  map  to  the  north- east.  Stockholm  and 
Petersburgh  in  June  are  as  warm  as  London.  Hence,  the  east 
side  of  England,  being  the  warmest  in  summer,  is  the  best  side 
for  wheat.  But,  besides  the  mild  winter  on  one  side,  and  the 
warmer  summer  upon  the  other,  there  is  a yet  greater  difference 
as  to  moisture  visible  and  invisible.  In  Devonshire  you  find  fern 
growing  on  the  limbs  of  the  oak,  and  oaks  themselves  thriving  on 
the  top  of  high  narrow  hedgebanks.  The  air,  though  clear,  being 
moist,  probably  absorbs  less  water  from  the  surface  of  leaves, 
which  therefore  require  a less  supply  of  water  through  the  roots. 
The  difference,  too,  as  to  visible  moisture,  rain,  is  very  great  in- 
deed ; for,  the  westerly  winds  arriving  from  the  warm  gulf  stream, 
charged  with  vapour,  are  chilled  by  the  land  and  part  with  that 
vapour  in  rain.  If  they  strike  a hilly  land  (and  our  western 
coast  is  almost  mountainous)  the  air  is  driven  up  from  the  level 
of  the  sea  to  a higher  and  colder  region,  and  parts  with  yet  more 
rain.  Accordingly,  taking  29  places  * on  the  east  side  of  the 
island,  we  find  the  yearly  downfall  to  be  25§  inches;  and  at  29 
places  on  the  west  side  to  be  49  inches,  all  but  double;  while  on 
the  Cumberland  mountains  it  reaches  the  enormous  amount  of 
121  and  147  inches.  In  Northumberland,  when  a south-wester 
blows,  they  know,  I was  told,  that  it  is  raining  torrents  in  Cumber- 
land, 50  miles  off,  but  they  get  none  themselves,  because  the  air 
has  been  dried  in  rising  over  the  mountain  tops. 
What  then  is  the  practical  inference  for  agriculture  from  these 
undoubted  facts,  established  by  Science  ? Caution  in  laying 
down  general  rules.  We  now  see  why  a Scotch  farmer  often 
fails  in  England,  or  a Suffolk  farmer  even  in  Cheshire.  Again, 
if  a landowner  desire  to  improve  his  estate  in  the  West  High- 
lands or  Galway,  he  must  look,  we  see,  not  to  Lincolnshire  or 
Aberdeenshire,  but  to  some  district  of  kindred  moisture.  There 
is,  however,  a more  definite  inference  to  be  drawn  even  than 
these.  Flow  can  a fixed  rule  be  laid  down  for  the  depth  or  the 
distance  of  drains  or  the  size  of  the  pipes,  when  one  county  has 
25  inches  of  rain  and  another  has  50  inches  to  be  carried  off  by 
those  drains  ? The  difference  is,  in  fact,  more  than  this  ; for  a 
large  part  of  the  downfall  returns  to  the  air  from  the  surface. 
According  to  the  most  recent  and  trustworthy  experiments  pub- 
I hare  talien  the  places  given  in  Mr.  Whitley’s  paper,  Journal,  vol.  xi.  p.  13. 
