Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-06-13
Some Alleged Ways OF Foretelling the
Weather.

NeAtncFs
To what extent the birds or animals
can foretell the weather is uncertain.
When the swallows are seen hawking
very high il is good indication; the in
sects upon which they feed venture up
there only in the most suspicious wealth
en- Yet bees will continue To leave the
hive when storm is imminent. am
told that one of the most reliable wealth
er signs they have down in Texas is
offered by the ants. The ants bring
their eggs up out of their underground
retreat and expose them to the warmth
of the sun to be Matched. When they
are seen carrying them in again in
great haste, though there be not cloud
in the sky, your walk or your drive must
be postponed; storm is at hand.
Observe the lilies of the field. Sir
John Lubbock says the dandelion low.
ers itself after Towering, and lies close
to the ground while it is maturing its
seed, and then rises up. My dandelions
continue to grow after the flower has
dropped, the stalk lengthens daily,
keeping just above the grass till the
fruit is ripened, and the little globe OF
slvery down is carried many inches
higher than was the ring Of golden
flowers. And the reason is obvious,
The plant depends upon the wind To
scatter its seeds, every one OF these lit
tie vessels spreads sail to the breeze,
and tits necessary that they be launched
above the grass and weeds, amid which
they would be caught and held did not
the stalk continue to grow and outstrir
the rival vegetation. 1t is curious in
stance of foresight in weed.
People live in the country all theil
lives without making one accurate OBJ
servation about nature. The evergreen
trees i'm front of their doors what dc
they know about their habitsP Do tn,
pine and the hemlock shed their leavcsl
Not in any strict sense. In the decidu
Gus trees the new leaves takes the place
of the old; they come out in the aNil'
of the old leaves, and the branch is re
clothed each spring, even If no new
shoots appear. Not so with the pine OF
the hemlock; they turn over new leal
only when they turn over new growth
of wood. The white pine usually sheds
its leaves in midsummer, though hay,
known all the pines TO delay till Octo
Der. II is on with the new love before
il is of with the old. From May til
near autumn il carries two crops o
leaves, last years and tho present
years. Emerson's inquiry,
how the sacred pinc-trce adds
To her old leaves now myrinds.
il formed in strict accordance with The
facts. 1t is to her old leaves that sh'
adds the new. Only the new growth
the outcrmost leaves, arc carried over
till the next season, thus keeping The
trees always clothed and green. As IL
molding season approaches, these ole
leaves, all the rear ranks on the limbs
begin To turn yellow, and careless OLD
server might think the tree was strucl
with death; but il is not. The dcca,
stops just where the growth of th'
previous spring began, and present.,
the tree is green and vigorous, with ;
newly-laid carpet of fallen leaves be
meath it. But the same is not true o
the hemlock, or the spruce, or the rec
cedar. These trees do not shed thci
leaves periodically, but outgrow then
gradually, as they do their bark, or a
person outgrows or wears out hi
clothes, here shred and there n shred
bit to-day or bit tomorrow, an,
were il not for the new growth mad
each spring they would, in time, be
come quite naked The winds ant
storms whip them of, and, rs TIN
branches grow, the old leaves gradual.
disappear, leaving naked stem. Blu
none of the confer@ renew their leave
rs do the deciduous trees. New leave
come only upon new wood. If tn
tree were to cease to grow il woul,
probably Qhough of this j am not Ger
tain) cease to shed its leaves. Tn
pines and frs and spruccs differ still
more radically from the deciduous trees
They have less scope, less versatility
fewer resources. They never sprout
Cut them down and that is the end
Cut off limb and it is never renewed
by new shoot Trim apine or n hem
lock closely and it will die; it has N,
power to start a branch dc nOcO, to burs
the bark with new shoot. A sort o
fatalism is characteristic of these trees
The limbs of the white pine tend to re
cur in regular intervals, like the round
of ladder. As it shoots upward in tn
forest it pulls this ladder up after it, ST
that the tallest trees are limbless 70
eighty or ninety feet.
When you cut off the top of pine o
spruce, removing the central an,
leading shaft, the tree does not develol
and send forth new one to take tn
place of the old, but a branch from tn
next in rank; that is, from the mex
whorl of limbs, is promoted TO take tn
lead.
The good observer of nature hold
his eye long and firmly to the point
as one does when looking Mt puzzl
picture, and will not be bafllcd Tn
cat catches the mouse, not merely be
cause she watches for him, but bccaus
she is armed to catch him and is quick
So the observer finally gets the fact, no
only because he has patience, but be
cause his eye is sharp and his infercpc
swift. Many shrewd old farmer look
upon the milky-way as kind o
weather-cock, and will tell you that TN
way it points at night indicates tn
direction of the wind the next day
So also every new moon is dry moo
or wet moon-dry if n pow,lcr-horl
would hang upon the lower limb, we
if it would not; forgetting the fact that
as u rule, when 1t Is dry in ono part q
the continent il is wet i'm some othc
part, and vice versa. When he kill
his hogs in the fall if the pork be yer
hard and solid he predicts sever
winter; if soft and loose, the opposite
again overlooking the fact that tn
kind of food and the temperature of tn
fall make the pork hard or make
soft. So with hundred other signs
all the result of hasty and incomplct
observations. In most of the opera
tons of nature there is one or more I'm
known quantity; 10 find the exact valu
of this unknown factor is not So easy
The wool of the sheep, the fur o
animals, the feathers of the fowls, TN
husks Of the maize, why are they thickc
some seasons than others; what is In
value of the unknown quantity here
Does IL Indicate u severe winter ap
proaching? Only observations extend
ing over series of years could deter
,,,,,, Tho ,nipf II,,, ,,,.,,,i, IN tinpt IA