Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1874-07-24
THE ATMOSPHERE AND SOME
ATTENDANT PHENOMENA.

BY DIR. Hiram A. Cutting, state GeOlOgist.
This address before the Vermont State
Board of Agriculture, Manufactures and
Mining, at Westminster, is too lengthy for
our columns, and we give it in epitome only.
The lecturer remarked that when VIC are
children, tho atmosphere or air, as it is gen.
orally termed, is to us as nothing. A vessel
of air Is to our senses n vessel with nothing
in it. Early nations thought in tho same
way. Wind, which we understand rs cur
rent of air, they understood as spiritual lie,
and believed it to be the spirit and life oil
the world. They believed that if animals,
or even solids, could become attenuated like
air, that they would be Immortal. The
world was far advanced in knowledge be-
fore it gave up the belief that things could
be thus changed; and later still they boliov
ed that creations could put on various forms;
and it passed into an axiom of ancient sci
ence that everything into everything" was
to be foundation stone.
Instead OF considering the atmosphere rs
nothing, we are now inclined to go toward
the other extreme, and if atmosphere and
tho light OF the sun are not considered
everything, we attribute very much, both
real and conjectural, to such causes. We
have learned that its conditions rs to
warmth speed and weight are so important
that VIC appoint agents the world over
for the purpose of measuring its frequent
variations while the moisture 1t contains
has wonderful influence upon ourselves as
well rs the seasons. There arc also many
invisible bodies in the atmosphere, some OF
which arc deleterious, while many moro are
advantageous. Added to these, VIC have
organized living things themselves. some OF
which are able to plant colonies wherever
they can find nourishment. 1t is thus that
minute forms of vegetable life, and micro
scopic fungi, are conveyed from place to
place the world over. 1t has been positive
ly shown, and may be verified by any one,
that some plants of this order will send OIL
more spores than there is human population
on the globe, yet every one capable OF pro-
ducing its kind. 1t is true that to ordinary
observation those foreign bodies are not OBJ
servable, but when beam of sunlight is adj
mitted into darkened room they become nj
once visible. By experiment it has been
shown that the visibility Of the ray is entire
" owing to such particles of foreign matter
To show that these germs will vegetate, and
are sometimes detrimental, an experiment
with milk may be easily tried. Put in two
bottles of equal size tho same amount OF milk
Leave one open to the air, and close TIT
other with a pellet of fine cotton, which viii
admit the air but keep out most OF thu
spores. The one unstopped will sour IL
from 90 TO 80 hours, while tho other viii
keep sweet for two or three days. Thi
change is in the main produced by such fun
gold growth. This speaks in unmistakabl'
terms, and such experiments show in tn
most conclusive manner that tho air aroun'
us is the storehouse from which many mi
croscopic growths, both vegetable and ami
NAL, are propagatod. There is no othe
way to account for such minute cryptogam
or animalcules, unless we admit spontane
Gus growth produced by the aid Of tho ligh
of the sun aud the atmosphere. At tn
present time this subject is sharply debated
Such ideas are. not new. Spontaneou
production has been entertained by som
ever since tho dawn of science. The earl
or naturalists conceived that many hIghe
organism, such as insects, reptiles, tishei
and even birds. might BIO directly produce
from the earth when moistened with show
ers. Some scientific works of the time
Aristotle say that the fruit of certain tire
when dropped IN tho water is known to pr'
duce geese and ducks, and drawing
such tree and fruit was made. No MOI
than fifty years ago many believed u
change of growth from soft to hard wood
our forests was the result of spontaneoI
growth or the first statement no reiuti
ton need be given; of the second wi
give an example directly under my observ'
ton. On Miles Mt, in Concord, twent.
three years ago, large tract of spruce tin
Der land was burned over, and the secor
year this tract was covered with thiC
growth of bird cherry trees, as the "Prunl
Pennsylvania is commonly called. III
soil had been burned deep and 1t SCENE
impossible that the cherry stones could
slrown over the entire tract. ExaminatiC