Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1888-03-16
THE UTILITY OF THE SNOW.
Its BeautJ-Its Fertilizing Properties
animal and Vegetable Life in 1t.

animal and Vegetable Life in 1t.
Written for the Free Press by NJ. o. Howe
The past winter has been season of
storms and drifting SHOWS. The opening
OF the first month of spring finds the sur
face of northern New England still under
a thick covering of icy crystals for the
snow is mass of beautiful crystalline
forms. At this season the crystals of the old
snow have become united with each other
and more or less irregular from compress
sion and alternate freezing and thawing.
1t is in the new fallen snow, and in frost
works, that the most perfect crystals are
found. Some of these are combined in the
most wonderfully regular and artistic
shapes. A volume has been written about
snow crystals, and more than a thousand
different forms described. But the people
who live where the snow frequently ac-
cumulates to the depth of four or five feet,
impeding travel and remaining for
months, a constant remainder of our
severe Northern winters, are generally
obliged to spend more time in shovellng
paths than in studying CRYSTALS. Their
attention is called from the esthetics of
frost works to the more practical duty of
providing against its effects. They are
thus, at times, poorly prepared to appre-
Ciate the beautiful snow Youth may
be delighted at the falling of the first
snow of the season, but after the ground
has been hidden from sight through a long
winter, all ages rejoice to see the snow
melting away in the warm sun of the re
turning spring, and to catch sight of the
first patches of bare earth.
Yet the snow, however we may rejoice
at its disappearance, has served more than
l.
ture. 1t is one of the best non-conductors
of heat, and consequently prevents the in
ternal heat of the earth from escaping.
Plants are thus protected that would be
injured or destroyed if exposed to the win
ter's cold without covering. In many
places where the ground was frozen to u
considerable depth at the beginning of
winter when the snow began to fall, if we
dig down to the earth in March il will be
found free from frost. The thawing pro-
cess has been going on underneath be
cause the snow has prevented the radia'
ton of heat.
Deep snow is a special bene fit to all
kinds of fruit trees, like the plum and the
peach, that are liable to be killed by Sc
we're freezing. The most productive fruit
regions of the Northern States, other con
ditiOns being equal, are in countries where
there is heavy fall of snow. The snow
not only protects the trees, but it retards
chances of fatal frost at that critical
time. Grapes, pears, peaches and other
| less hardy kinds of fruit thrive III some
localities where they would be pretty sure
| to fail without the protection of the snow.
Has snow any tertilizing properties? II
| has been called the poor mans manure. u
To most farmers this idea may appear
fanciful, or as something referring only tt
| its use as protection to the vegetation
which it covers. 1t has, however, a real
value as fertilizer. So has rain; but
| snow contains the same fertiliZing mate
rial that is found in rain water, with per
| haps, at times, some additional matter
all of which it has stored up and held
to be gradually filtered into the soil just
| before the season of the most active
growth of vegetation. Thus the snow is
| beneficial for the water which it holds auC
gives TO the earth in time of need. But
water, though indispensable to the life OF
plants, is not, in the ordinary use of the
word, fertilizer. The snow contain:
something more than water Nitrogen
one Of the three essential components of 4
complete fertilizer, in one or more of III
compounds is found in snow-in minut,
quantities, it is true, but amounting t,
considerable in the aggregate. The
amount of nitrogen in rain wa
ter, as ammonia and as nitric
acid, has been determined from time tC
| time toy Dawes and Gilbert at Ratham
sted, England, and by agricultural chem
! lists at experiment stations elsewhere. II
| has been estimated that rain and melteC
snow supply, annually, 10 pounds or more
| per acre, OF these nitrogen compounds
| The quantity Is quite variable, but aSSum
| ing the determinations to be correct, ant
applicable to this climate, Vernon
farms would get from this source as much
niu ogen yearly, AS would be supplied by
applying the standard commercial super
| DlOSuldteS AT he RATE of ROO 400 DOIu0 :
| per acre.
Long before much was know
of agricultural chemistry, in 1892
Or. Williams, author of Williams
H story of Vermont, and formerly pro
lessor of mathematics and natural phil
osophy in Harvard college, undertook t.
determine the amount of foreign matter
contained in snow The result of his eX
perlments are detailed i'll the first volum,
of the history. He found in six gallons o
water from fresh fallen Vermont snow
| grains of calcareous matter, two grains o
saline matter and five grains of dart
brown oily matter. From six gallons o
water obtained by melting Snow takel
within three inches of grass ground
under depth of 81 inches o
overlying snow, he found besides
the CdlCartOus and saline matte
dime and salts as before, lO5 grains of tn,
brown oily substance. This was takel
from an area of IL square feet, and is com
puted to amount to about 40 pounds pc
acre.
Other foreign substances are sometimes
found i'll snow. During the first warn
days OF spring it Is not uncommon to Sc,
| the surface of the snow for miles in eX
tent, shaded in color by immense mum
bers of black fleas. Colored snow, red
brown or yellowlsh, is sometimes caused
by microscopic insects, but more frequent
ly, II il now said, by a species of algH,
vegetable organism of the same order a
the green matter which collects in pools o
| water.