The Middlebury galaxy. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1848-1850, 1848-07-18

ing Of ores and the workings of metals coult
be practiced only on a very limited scale, arc
the remains of extinct forests limestone form
atoms are often almost entirely Of animal orr
IGN, and even our common polishing powder.
are composed of the finty shells or wing-cases
Of microscopic insects no longer extant.
Vegetable life therefore, the object of prop
er agriculture, is the indispensable condition
of at least the higher forms of animal exist
ence, and the economical value of this art can
hardly be ovcrrated. But are its present con-
dition and estimation answerable to its intrin-
sic importance The result of agricultural
labors depends upon causes so obscure and diff
ficult of appreciation, or are determined by
meteoric and telluric influences apparently so
completely beyond human foresight and con-
troll or to express the same ideain fewer words,
nature here contributes so much and man so
little that the name Of an art has been somewhat
unvillingly accorded to the agricultural pro-
fession. But since modern analytical science
has busied itself with economical investigations,
agriculture has com to have its proper laws,
and is no longer conducted by arbitrary rules,
themselves founded on 4 blind and cropping ex-
perience. Until chemical analysis had shown
what were the constituent dement's of vegeta-
bic forms, ascertained their proportions and
modes of combination and resolved soils into
their primary ingredients, there was no appa-
rent reason why a particular locality should
be better suited to one vegetable growth than
to another. The adoption of a given crop to
4 given soil was simply an isolated fact, acct
dentally observed, and determined by no as
certained relation of cause and effect. But
when the ingredients and their proportion, in
wheat or any other grain, arc known, we may
at once infer what soils are best fitted for its
production, as containing or supplying, in the
truest measure, the clements which enter into
that grain, and we are also taught at the same
time by what means TO beStow on particular
soils the properties needed for the growth Of
particular vegetables. Thus agriculture ac-
Quires laws founded not on mere empiricism.
but on established constant physical facts, and
therefore becomes a branch of natural knoFi-
edge, instead of 4 mass Of rules referable to no
known general truths. The telluric influen-
ces to be regarded in agriculture are fast be-
coming entirely appreciable, and We shall
doubtless soon know, with 4 close approxima-
ton to certainty, the relation between soils
and crops, and the only merely empirical qucs-
ton remaining will be the economical inquiry,
flor the due solution of which, other and fluc-
tuating elements are to be considerably how
far it is expedient to select crops adapted to
particular localities, or by artificial means so to
change the natural character of soils. as TO ft
them for the growth Of given crops. So far
then as telluric influences are concerned, it
may be assumed, that the results Of agricultu-
raj labors are in the main subject TO calcula-
ton, and depend entirely upon the intelligence
and industry of the husbandman.
But the equally important mctcoric i%nfluen-
ces as yet elude our grasp. All the greater
known causes operating OH Innate are con-
slant, and therefore, reasoning a priOri, We
should be authorized to conclude, that the eye
les of our seasons would he regular and invs-
riable. The heavenly bodies whose move
ments occasion the alienation of spring, and
summer, and autumn, and winter, revolve in
almost unchanging orbits; the constituents Of
the atmosphere have been precisely deter
mined and are every where and at all times
substantially the same, here then are appa-
rently sufficient elements of certainty, but the
electrical, thermometrical aud hygrometrical
condition of the atmosphere. or in other words
the distribution of electricity and light, heat
and cold, moisture and drought, is controlled
by causes which have hitherto baflled the re-
searches of the acutest inquirers, and is, in
fat. so irregular, hat the iickleness Of wind s
weather has passed into Il proverb. In spite
therefore Of the ingenious speculaionso of ESpy.
which, however visionary, possess high inter
est, and by no means deserve the ridicule that
sciolists and fools have heaped upon them, we
have certainly rs yet little cause to hope that
climatic influences can ever be subject, in any
important degree, to voluntary human modili-
cation or control. But though man cannot at
his pleasure command the rain and the sum
shine, the wind and frost and snow, yet it is
certain that climate itself has in many instan-
ces been gradually changed and ameliorated
or deieriorated by human action. The drain
ing Of swamps and the clearing of forests per-
ceptibly affect the evaporation from the earth,
and of course the mean quantity OF moisture
suspended in the air. The same causes modi-
~ the electrical condition of the atmosphere
and the power of the surface to reflect, absorb
and radiate the rays of the sun, and conse-
quentlv influence the distribution of light and
heat. and the force and direction Of the winds.
Within narrow limits too, domestic fires of ar
tifcial structures create and diffuse increased
warmth. to an extent that may affect vegeta-
ton. The mean temperature of London is a
degree or two higher than that of the surround
ing country, and Pallas believed, that the
of even so thunly a peopled country as
Russia was scnsibly modified by similar causes.
But though, in general, climatic influences
are beyond our reach, yettheir pcrnicious ten
denotes may sometimes be neutrallzed or over
come. Every one must have observed, that.
the tender plants in gardens surrounded by
high walls or buildings arc more secure from
frost than those in the open fields. A slight
difference in elevation, a judicious selection OF
a protection against cold winds by
groves or fences, the accumulation OF heat by
rocks and stones or artificial walls, or its alb
in consequence Of the dark color OF
the soil, irrigation, and lastly shelter and the
application Of artificial heat, may enable the
cultivator to grow plants, which prop
erly belong to a climate many degrees nearer
the equator than his own. Thus the orange
and the lemon ripen in the open airi certain
localities in the South of England.
British Conservatives will supply you the ma
fruits of the West Indies fresh from the
parent stalk, and Russian luxury has taught
the flowers of the tropics to bloom in pcrPet-
ual summer on the very verge Of the frozen
zone. Even the crane. 80 emDhatIcallY the |