The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1884-12-27
To Foretell Weather.

Few intelligent persons, says the South
ern Planter, can have any sympathy with
the so-called prophets who oracularly an
nounce phenomena, giving dates, occasion
ally making lucky hits, but as often firing
their random shots altogether wide of the
mark. That there is, however, something
in weather philosophy, intelligent persons
will be quite ready to concede, and they
will be in accord with the view of the
writer when he recommends the observation
of natural phenomena which has been
long praoticed. He says:
If one could read the signs, each day
foretells the next; to-day is the progenitor
of tomorrow. When the atmosphere is
telescope, and distant objects stand out
unusually clear and distinct, storm is
near. We are on the crest of the wave,
and the depression follows quick. 1t
sometimes happens that clouds are not SC
indicative of storm us their total absence
In this state of the atmosphere the stars
are usually numerous and bright at night,
which is also bad omen. Itappears that
the transparency Of the air is prodigiously
increased when a certain quantity of water
is uniformly diffused through it, Noun
taineers predict change of weather when,
the air being cold, the Alps covered with
perpetual snow seem on a sudden to be near
the observer, and their outlines are marked
with great distinctness on the azure sky.
This same condition of the atmosphere
renders distant sounds more audible.
There is one redness of the east in the
morning that means storm; another that
indicates wind. The first is broad, deep
and angry; the clouds look like an immense
bed of burning Goals; the second is soft and
more vapory. At the point where the sun
is going to rise, and few minutes in ad
vance of his coming, there rises straight
upward rosy column, like shaft of dyed
vapor, blending with and yet partly sepa-
rated from the clouds, and the base of
which presently comes to glow like the sun
himself. The day that follows is pretty
sure to be windy.
1t is uncertain to what extent birds and
animals can foretell the weather. When
swallows are seen hawking very high, it is
good indication, because the insects upon
which they feed venture up there only in
the most auspicious weather.
People live in the country all their lives
without making one accurate observation
about nature The good observer of nature
holds his eye long and firmly to the point,
and finally gets the facts, not only because
he has patience, but because his eye is
sharp and his inference swift. There are
many assertions, the result of hasty and
incomplete observation, such as, for in
stance, that the way the Milky Way points
at night indicates the direction of the wind
the next day; also, that every new moon
indicates either dry or wet month!
There are many other stories about the
moon too numerous to mention. Again,
when farmer kills his hogs in the fall,
if the pork be very hard and solid he pre-
diets severe winter; if soft and loose, the
opposite; overlooking the fact that the kind
of food and the temperature of the fall
make the pork hard or soft. Numerous
other instances could be cited to prove that
the would-be shrewd farmer does not in
terpret nature in the right way, and that
his conclusions, being hasty and incomplete,
are wrong; and until he studies nature un-
derstandingly, using little common sense,
so long will he be more or less under the
ban of superstition and Ignorance.