The New York herald., 1871-12-20

servers, are published In the HERALD to-
day. They indicate the commencement of
what is known as "white Christmas"
season and the approach of cold, and
it may be, clustering New Year. Few
objects of nature elicit more admiration
than ''the beautiful snow" A magnif-
cent shower Of snow stars, if seen in the trop-
les, would excite, perhaps, as much wonder
and amazement as one Of our November
meteoric showers A popular and eminent
physicist has applied to the thousand forms of
snow crystals now known to exist the words
which Tennyson applied to the small sea-
shell -
Frail, but work divine,
Made SO FAIRLY WELL
SO exquisltely minute,
miracle or design.
But while there is poetry in snow there
Is also profound and beautiful philosophy
which the most practical man cannot ignore
in Its bearings upon his everyday welfare.
A few months ago the dreadful fires of the
Northwest swept with cyclonic violence over
its fair fields and prairies, and this far distant
land of the hardy settler was compelled to lay
Now, however, as we have learned by the
kilograms of the past weeks, benign hand
has spread over the desolated region mantle
Of warmth and protection. Meteorologists
show us that, from It's loose texture,
and from the fact that it contains
about ten times its bulk Of air entangled and
stored away in its interstices, the snow
mantle Is most admirable covering for the
earth, arresting the earth's radiation, which
otherwise would be lost in the outermost
confines Of the atmosphere and In the inter-
stellar spaces. This fact taken with some
recent and extremely interesting researches
in the climatic inf uencs Of snow (Which we
will mention) will en- able us to forecast the
prospects of the N orthwest for it's next years
crops and for recu peration from this years
disasters Ell
In August NJ. Wojerkof member of the
Imperial Russian Geographical Society, gave
an admirable summary Of results he had
obtained in the study of snow in various coun-
tries, and his conclusions agree with the
observations Of other scientific observers. It
seems satisfactorily proved that wherever the
snow mantle appears regularly winter crops
are always sure, be the cold ever so intense.
In the steppes of s outh and East Russia,
where but very small quantity of snow falls
In winter-and this small quantity is frequently
blown away by the strong wiuds-winter crops
are scarcely attempted at ALL On the north
ern coasts of the Black Sea summer wheat and
Indian corn are foun to grow very finely, but
winter wheat Is pre- carious crop, while to
the north, In Pod Ola, where the forests
afford protection against the wind and snow
falls copiously and cannot be blown away, the
winter wheat is the principal crop.
It not unfrequently happens in times Of
great cold that the soil is forty degrees warmer
than the surface of the everything snow. This
remark, of course, applies to unusually cold
snaps of weather. But it has been observed
in Russia, about one hundred and twenty
miles south of A rchangel, that even the mean
temperature of the air and soil for the winter
greatly differ, the mean temperature of the
former being thirty-two degrees or lower, and
that Of the soil being forty-one degrees, or
nine degrees higher. The anne difference has
been shown for the southwest Of Siberia,
where the air is forty -one degrees and the
soil fifty degrees. As soon as the snow is
melted the clim ate assumes it's true continental
character.
The influence Of forests and mountains in
equalizing the layer of snow and, by prevent
ing immense drifts, giving to 1t all its bene-
fetal effects, must no {, however, be over
looked. While our Northwestern forests have
suffered much by the late fires, yet they are
sufficient to accomplish this important Office
They certainly are not 50 universally destroyed
as to render the whole country treeless
steppes, like those of Russia. But there
is here most important suggestion for
the economist, and especially for the
railroad agents and civil engineers,
which must not be overlooked. Last Febru-
ary in the south of Russia, where the forests
had been completely destroyed in the march
of Russian civilization, most Of the railways
were entirely stopped up and their trains
ceased raining for some months; and such a
calamity win certainly menace and overtake
our Pacific railways, unless the forests that
skirt them are protected. In this respect the
Northern Pacific will have some great advan-
tages over its completed rival, because il passes
through milder climate and country, as
yet, not SO mu ch cleared of Its native timber.
The early ar rival of the great snow fall in
the Northwest and the regions devastated by
the fearful fre-blast will have the double
effect Of preserving the soil fruitful for the
farmer and will in the spring melt away to
moisten and loosen 1t for his use. The former
process of preserving its heat will be pecu-
liarly well secured by the early spreading Of
the snow mantle, before the earth has had
time fully to radiate its summer and autumn
stores Of heat. and thus to become highly re-