The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-02-11
Nature Study.
CRYSTALS IN NATURE.

mrs z L. Stevens, West Raleigh, N. c.
Correspondence Of The Progressive Farmer.
"Those who are really awake TO
the sights and sounds which the
procession of the months offer them
find endless entertainment and in
struotion. Yet there + great null
titudes who are present at as many
as three and ten performances
without ever really looking at the
scenery or listening to the music or
observing the chief actors"
One of the most striking of Ma
lures speotacles and one which
would hardly go u~nnotioed by the
most unobserving was presented to
US one morning last week when we
awoke to find tree, bush, grass, every.
thing clothed in new and sparkling
raiment. A slight rain follow ed by
a sudden drop in the temperature
was sufficient TO transform the en-
tire picture and it was a veritable
fairyland that greeted US on that
winter morning.
Contemplation of the picture leads
TO the question, How did it all hap
pen? Our older friends tell us that
for a few hours a slight sleet or hail
fell from the clouds and produced
the result we saw-that was all, a
most commonplace ~ccurrence in
deed. But the child mind is not so
easily put aside: What makes the
hail OF sleet? How was the snow
flake formed up in the sky? The
answer to these questions introduces
Us TO one of the most interesting of
nature StudieS-the subject of srys-
talizatiOn.
Crystals in Nature are so abund-
ant, so various, and so beautiful that
they deserve some special attention.
They are formed by the solidifying
of any liquid, sometimes due either
TO extreme heat or extreme cold.
Not the least interesting are the
snow crystals which are produced
when water vapor condenses at a
temperature below the freezing
point. The waLer forms small clear
spicules of ice which always Gross at
an angle of 60 degrees, so that snow
crystals usually have six rays uni
formly arranged about a center ; but
the variety of forms is great. An
ordinary magnify ing glass will show
some exquisite shapes and designs
among the snow crystals. A mum,
Der of crystals become hooked or
pelted together and form a SnOl0
fake. The Wilderness of snow is
produced by the reflection and re-
fraction of light again and again
amongst the numerous small orys-
tails. The real color is blush green
like a block or ice.
The tightly packed little snow.
balls about the size of small shot
which fall during a winter rain we
call sleet of soft hail. They are
probably formed by the larger ice
particles in a deep ice cloud over
taking and adhering to the smaller
ones.
True hail is different and only 90
ours in warm weather usually as an
accompaniment of thunderstorms.
The Maidstone when out across IN
naturally shows alternate layers of
clear ice and compact snow. Such
hail-stones are probably produced
by an ordinary soft Maidstone formed
at a great height falling into a rain
cloud where 1t gets a coating of
water and then being carried by an
ascending current into a high cold
region where the water is frozen
into clear ice and a deposit of snow
takes place outside. The same hail
stone may be caught in ascending
and descending currents several
times in succession, thus getting
alternate coats of snow and ice.
But among the stones you will
find the most beautiful crystals, in
color, shape and variety. Many of
these are not accessible TO the young
nature student but some interesting
experiments may be performed at
home, with little trouble and prao-
tically no cost, which will be useful
and entertaining IS we'll. Provide a
small quantity of salt, sugar, wash
ing soda, alum, blue v~itriOl, oopperas
and prussiate of potash. Form a
saturated solution of each substance
by boiling a few minutes in a small
nnantitv of water until the sub