Burlington free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1827-1865, 1836-06-10
From the Maine Farmer.
CYCLES AND THE SEASONS.

Bya Cycle I mean q complete round of
time. To establish the truth of the doc.
trins of cycles, | shall premise that a little
less than nineteen years has been found TO
be a complete round of seasons. will
consider periods of nineteen years and see
what has taken place in regard to heats
and colds and have the reader infer VIVA,
may hereafter be expected. First, 1885.
attribute 10 the influence of the comet, was
a very cold year.
Subtract 10 years from 1885, and you
have l8l6-the coolest year ever known
in New England. Subtract 10 years from
1916 and you hive 1897, which was a cold
year. Subtract 10 years from 1897 ard
you have 1878. At this period the coolest
year was l777, when the people of New
England suffered almost a famine. Corn
cobs were boiled and the broth drank, oats
ground and made into bread. Flax seed
was also ground and made use Of for food
in l778, and many lived SIX weeks on milk
alone. Deduct 10 years more and you
have 1859, the time, if | mistake not, OF
what is called the old French War and
the year | believe. when Cape Breton was
taken. 1t was before my remembrance,
but | have often heard Of its being a cold
year.
Now lie: us take the years of great heat.
1881 was a year OF uncommon heat. De-
duct 10 from that and you have 1912. In
the fall of 1911 the great comet appeared
the heat was oppressive. and It continued
hot tor the time Of year into 1912. Aftel
the comet passed off south as usual, the
wind was mostly north. Deduct 10 year,
from 1919, and you have 1893. which wa,
a hot season on this continent-thougf
1898 which was hottest in New England
or this part of it. The year 1893 was thu
year that the yellow fever ragged in Phila
delphia and elsewhere. Deduct 10 fron
the last number and you have l774, thu
year previous to the American Revolu'
ton; all the old soldiers now living re
member the hot years of I774 and S. The
year succeeding the cold year has Away
remember, and they were the most pro
they so? Is there any satisfactory reason
to be given' The fact will be admitted
by all who recollect the years. will
mention what | consider to be a few of TIT
combined reasons, for do not consider tina
u uepenuS OH any one cause dIone' In
first is this. In the cod years which pre-
coded the year l798-l798 and 1917 thu
earth had in a measure rested or produce,
small crops.
The cold years were all dry years. Tn
year succeeding a drowlh is thought b.
some to be more productive. May not an
other cause be in the seed. The most per
feet seed Of the small grains is produced il
cold seasons when they ripen slowly an,
are carried to the greatest maturity.
take it to be true that nothing. Of the sma'
grains ought to be sowed but the best @
the kinds full ripened. And | will her
beg leave TO dlgress from the main subjec
and say that the only hope Of derivini
much advantage from an exhange Of seed.
is to take them from n mountainous countr
to a fiat and sandy one, and the reverse
In a flat and sandy country the small graf
tend every year to grow smaller in tn
/ straw aud to ripen earlier in the season
Remedy seems to be to exchange with thos
from mountainous parts. Indian corr
, pumpkins, &c, may do best to be accllm,