The Londonderry sifter. (South Londonderry, Vt.) 1883-19??, 1885-01-01
THE SC0URGE OF FAMINES.
Gradually Disappearing in
Civilized Countries.
The Cause of Famines, and Why They
Will 20 be Abolished.

since been followed IN divers coun'
tries; in France, for instance, at the
beginning of the present century, and
at Naples, under the reign of Charles
the Third, in the middle of the last
century. The conditions of agricultu.
raj produce in Egypt were. and still
are, exceptional,
Everything there is dependent. not
on local rains, for there are none, but
on the rains which fall far away,in the
equatorial regions where the Nils
takes its source, without receiving a
single aflluent after the seventeenth
degree of latitude. Those rains deter
mine the inundation of the soil OF
Egyrt--the unique, but indispensable,
condition of a harvest.
In Joseph's time, and thousands of
years before hiT, Egypt was decima-
ted by famine whenever the Nile
failed to rise high enough to irrigate
the soil and cover it with fertilizing
moisture and mud.
Neighboring countries, the coasts OF
Phenicia, Asia Minor, Greece, Sicily,
and Northern Africa did indeed
escape the scourge, thanks to the local
rains that fell there. They were able,
frequently. to supply the needs Of
Egypt. But in those days maritime
commerce did net exist. Egypt,
blockadel on two sides by deserts,
could only count on the wise admins
tration of her own resources. At a
later period maritime commerce res
cued Egypt from dangers of starvation
in abundant years she enriched herself
by the export of superhuous grain; in
years Of insufficient inundation she
was able to purchase grain from
abroad and receive it at the port of
Alexandria.
In Egypt of the present day, at no
distant future, when posts of obser-
vation shall have been established in
Abyssinnia and beyond it on the course
of the Nile and its affluents, connect
ed by a telegraphic wire with Cairo,
the Egyptians will know, several
months before. hand, and within a foot
or two, the hight the Nile will attain
at each inundation, and can take their
measures accordingly.
In other countries, famines depend
on the rains which either do not fall,
or fall in excess. in each distinct local
ity. This evil is more severely felt in
countries where man is monophanous
| in his diet-where he sus aims life eX-
clusively, or almost so, on one single
article of food; as in India and parts
of China, onrice, and quite rec emily, in
a less degree, in Ireland, on potatoes.
l f rain fails, rice, the thirstiest OF
grain-giving plants, fails also; if rain
is in excess in quantity and continu.
ance, the destroying fungus spreads
and the potato rots.
Periods of drought evidently follow
some general law, depending on the
upper currents of the atmosphere.
They constitute grand problem
which belongs to equatorial meteorolo
gy rather than to anything that car
be observed at the Poles. Mr.. Faye
consequently holds that it is the for
mer which ought to be closely studied
whereas stations within the Polar cir
cles, besides being cruelty painful ant
dangerous, can furnish only very indi
rect contributions to meteorological
science.
An attempt has been made to con
meet dry and rainy periods with tn,
maxima and minima of spots on tn,
sun. But nothing has been proved t.
bring onviction. The final conclusion
is that there is no correspondence he
tween the two sets of phenomena, ant
that it would be in vain to predict in
undations. droughts or famines from
the presence or absence Of spots ON tn
sun.
Our comfort is that, amid the fire.
quent variations of those phenomena
veritable compensatlons without doub
occur throughout the whole globe, an
from one year to another. If rain fail
on one portion of a continent, it vii
not fail throughout the whole of tina
continent; in any case it will not fai
over whole hemisphere. Conse
quently, if harvests fall short in on
country they will be abundant in othe
more or less distant regions.
But at the present day commerce an
navigation are able to carry the super
fluites of one country to other less ia
vored districts.
For civilized nations the scourge O
famine no longer exists. 1t happen
only in vast monophanous population
of India and China, who are isolate
from the rest of the world, or in certai
parts of South America deprived G
means of communication.
There is a small rivulet near Dorm
ney's mill, in Irwin county, that ha
been puzzle to us for two years. Th
stream is governed by the moon du
ing dry weather At the last quartz