The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1875-02-19


Weather.
The present winter will be long memorable
for the great January Frost which came so
unexpectedly and has chung 90 tenaciously to
the country. It carries the mind back to
some of the earlier cold seasons which made
their mark in the history of the Republic, and
whoserigors are still remembered by the oldest
citizens. Although the almost Arctic scenes
that have recently been witnessed around
New York have been SO keenly felt they do
not, however, equal those to which we refer.
In 1850 Long Island Sound was completely
covered with ice, and an ice-bridge between
New York and Staten Island afforded safe
passageway for the Revolutionary troops The
winters Of 1911 and 1917 were similarly
marked by intense frosts in this country, as
also were those Of 1925 and 1885, during
which there are records of mercury freezing
in parts Of New York. In the last named
year the records of the period show that all
the country east of the Rocky Mountains and
north of line drawn from Natchez to Will
mington, experienced o fall of temperature
down to zero, Long Island Sound being ice
bridged; and in Now England the snow re-
manned from December to May.
While the present winter has not yet de-
veloped such rigorous and protracted cold
the intensity of it's frosts must nevertheless
exercise potent influence on the climate and
soil Of the earth for some months to come
This influence is varied, and it is of great i'm
portance to forecast some Of its effects. One
of these, which has been most clearly dis
cerned, is seen in the sanitary returns, which
indicate the deadly power of Arctic weather,
when it suddenly bursts over an unsuspecting
and unprepared population. But the anti
septic property Of cold, though not made 80
palpable to US by mortuary statistics, is
we'll known and most invaluable compensa-
ton for the other disadvantages it entails
| upon the public health. 1t was found by DR..
Kane's party that, under certain circum-
stances, the thermometer may sink to point
where this antiseptic property is neutralized.
But ordinarily even the terrible cold of the
Polar regions serves as a preservative from
the decomposing agency of the atmosphere,
and the bodies Of lost Arctic mariners have
been found kept by their icy cerements for
many years as perfectly as an Egyptian
mummy. After the present winter gives way
to summer skies we shall doubtless find that
the deep-striking severity of its frosts have
been guarantees for future immunity from
disease and epidemic
The effect of the winter upon agriculture re-
mains to be seen, and should be made q
matter of scientific inquiry. Among the inn
mediate consequences of the Polar waves
which have swept over the country we may
unhesitatingly expect, on the one hand,
large destruction of trees But this, too, has
an offset in the retardation of the vegetative
processes, and hence in the saving of enor-
nous quantities Of fruit, which in ordinary
years is cut off by early and untimely warm
weather in February, succeeded by the boreal
blasts of March. 1t is safe now to say that it
will be late in March before fruit trees which
are exposed reach that condition. Ex-
periments upon the soilpenetrating power
of cold have established the fact that
in light, loose soils, though the frost is
more felt on the upper layer, the ground does
not freeze as far below the surface as in the
heavier and clay soils. Considerable por-
tons of the great grain-growing regions of the
West, lying in the alluvial basin of the Mis-
sissippi, are clay soils, into which the recent
cold must have deeply struck. Though this
may delay the operations of the prairie farmer
| it is pretty sure indication that the grass-
hoppers and other insects which last year
ruined their crops have been frozen in the
soil, no more to emerge when spring appears
to darken the air and destroy the harvests
with their myriad Ewarms.
In addition to these physical consequences
likely to epsue from the Polar weather we
have had it is probable that the spring rains
will be unusually large. The amount of water
distracted from the passing clouds and vapor-
Ia len winds depends largely, if not chiefly,
upon the GOODNESS of the earths crust and its
consequent condensing power. When the
warm and moist spring winds begin to blow
over the country from the Gulf and the
Atlantic, with the return of the great eqrla-
torial air current, they will impinge upon
continent intensely chilled and In a condition
to condense immense quantities of vapor.
We may, therefore, hope for the speedy
restoration of the balance Of vapor, which has
been lost since the fearful droughts of last
July, since which date the agricultural in
terests have suffered greatly from the general
rainlessness
Such are some of the compensations that
may be anticipated from the present ''winter
| of our discomfort"
| The FRENCH SENATE-A new bill for the
organization of a Senate has been introduced