South-eastern Independent. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1871-1871, 1871-08-04
The Sky as an Agriculturist.

Human ingenuity has utilized air, earth
and water. 1t has made the thunderbolt
its light footed page, and set the very sun
itself to draw pictures for the benefit and
delight of mankind. Science, with def
and subtitle hand, and mysterious power
works on increasingly, and from out the
laboratories and dingy studies ofthe sdUGnS
come from time to time wondrous reveal
tons which only tell of still greater
depths to be fathOmed and loftier heights
to be scaled.
The last curious revelation from the
scientific world is made through the Phil
adelphia Press, which ssys that for ten
years Gen. A. j. Pleasanton has been con
Quoting scientific experiments in regard
to the chemical powers of the sunlight,
or more especially in reference to the
magnetic. electric, and thermic wonders of
the violet ray and its effect upon the
growth of vegetation and animals. 80
long ago as 1866, Sir John Newton dis
covered that the violet ray of the prism
had the greatest indice of refraction and
Sir John Herschel found that the chemi-
cal power of the solar lay is the greatest
in the violet ray. Taking these facts with
the fact of the permanent and all-prevaib
ing blue color of the sky, so varying Ia
INTENSITY Ol COlOI dCSOIQluR W GCdcOA duo
latitude, General Pleasanton made a num-
Der of practical experiments, which have
produced the most wonderful effects. He
built a grapery, causing the violet rays, by
means of colored glass, TO fall upon the
growing vines. The young vines were
set out, and at once there commenced a
most wonderful growth which has con.
tinued up to the present time, a period of
some ten years. The first year some of
the vines grew more than forty feet in
length, and the second year they were
covered with punches of grapes, bearing
some Twelve hundred pounds. This de-
Qelopment astonished all who saw it, 90
well it might, when we are reminded that
in grape growing countries, where grapes
have been grown for centuries, that a
period of time from five to six years will
elapse before a single bunch of grapes can
be produced from a young vine. Such q
growth in seventeen months was never
seen before. The next year these vines
produced some two thousand pounds of
grapes, and they have continued to bear
large crops of fruit without intermission
for the last nine years.
An experiment upon pigs was made
with a very gratifying result, and it was
found that those which had been subjected
to the influence of violent roys developed
faster, and weighed more than those ex-
posed to the ordinary sunlight. A most
extraordinary effect wa produced upon a
puny Attorney bull calf, which was
thought to be too feeble to raise. When
put under the violent rays, in less than
twenty-four hours a marked change took
place, and from that time on the develop
ment of the animal was wonderful, he
manifesting great vivacity and full mascu-
line vigor. The same experiments have
been applied to poultry with great success.
One can scarcely conceive of the i'm
measurable value of this discovery to ag-
ricultural people. And we know no good
season why this influence may not be
brought to bear upon the human family
for the ~invigorating of the constitutions of
invalids for the rearing and development
of sick and feeble children. Already SUI
baths as they are called, have been intro
duced into some of our health establish
ments, DR.. Angel, of New York, having
one on the top of his Turkish bath, on
Madison avenue. We must now have vio-
let baths, and, in time, doubtless architects
will so arrange the introduction of these
mixed rays of light into houses that
the occupants may derive the greatest
benefit from this influences. 1t has long
been known that the red ray of light is
heating, the yellow Illuminating, and the
blue or violet in a remarkable degree
stimulating to the development of vegeta-
BILE life. Says General P~leasanton:
From this discovery we can imagine
the immense influence which the intensely
blue color of the sky in the equatorial re-
gions has and always has had in conjunc-
ton with the suns white light, and the
heat and moisture Of those regions, upon
the development there of vegetable life.
This intensely blue color of the sky in the
Arctic regions may also serve to explain
the exuberance of animal life there.
Humboldt said that he had meyer seen
the sky's blue so intense as In the tropics
and under the equator. Arctic navigators
have also declared that in the Arctic re-
gions the intensity of the blue color ofthe
is amazing.
"On no part of our planet is the de-
of vegetable life so grand, SO
various, so excessive, and so constant as
in the tropics and in the equatorial re-
gions. While this wonderful display of
vegetation is observed in these regions,
the exuberance of animal life and the
rapid growth ofvegetable life in the Arctic
are said to be unequaled in any
other mart of the world"