Year: 1874

cuIturists-Tho Early EquinOctial


Rain.


The equinoctial weather has made q
was it more needed There is an old Italian
proverb in verse which, put into English
prose, means September either washes away
bridges or else brings famine. This adage is
not less true of Italy than of the United
States, and we can hardly hesitate in choosing
the first alternative it presents The summer
has been one of extraordinary dryness, con-
sequent upon conditions unknown even to
the scientific, which, if not relieved by an
early equinoctial rainfall, must have blighted
the hopes of both the autumnal and summer
harvests


Experience leads us to expect in this month
those heavy downpours from the clouds which
not only wash away bridges, but have so often
proved destructive of human life. The sum-
mer heat on the American Continent is very
telling in causing barometric depression,
which can be filled up only by immense
indraughts of oceanic air. charged with
gaseous vapor and the elements of storm and



movement gave rise to the terrible water
spout which, coming in from the Atlantic,
along the line of the Chesapeake, poured its
desolating foods over Southern Maryland.
Still later and at the same season (autumn)
came the fearful cataclysm which burst upon
the fair valley of Virginia and the Piedmont
section of that State, carrying havoc amid
the ungarnered crops and watery death to
many who were suddenly swept with their
houses into the raging watercourses. The re-
cent rainfalls of the 18th and 10th inst. on the
seaboard, but that they were spread out over
longer periods of time, might have accom-
plished similar ruin; but, with probably few
disastrous effects, they will prove the SALIVA
ton Of the crops not already blasted by
drought.


Every year we have fresh and more en-
phatic lesson to our agricultural communities
to turn their attention to the outstanding or
artificial storing of their water supply. It is
true the alleged diminution of summer rain
fall and deterioration Of climate by deforest-
ing and other causes is in dispute among
scientific authorities. But, meantime, the
practical observer sees unmistakable evidence
of the increasing scarcity of water in the
American summer and the growing need of
irrigation systems on small scale in nearly all
the agricultural districts save, perhaps, those
bordering on the Gulf of Mexico. Even these
(were it not that cotton is sun plant
and can thrive with but little moisture) would
fail of their agricultural YIELD and have failed,
in many Of the excessively dry summers and
might advantageously store their surplus
spring rainfall In the Middle States, how
ever, where agriculture concentrates its labor
and capital for the supply of the great metro
politan cities, and produces large crops on
small areas Of soil, irrigation would be
feasible and comparatively cheap. Small
reservoirs along the Allegheny and Blue
Ridge slopes and outlying elevations would
cost but little when compared with those of
India, and would save annually far more than
the interest on the original outlay.


The subject of irrigation is confessedly diff
cult, but it is high time it was thoroughly
weighed by intelligent agriculturists, and
for Immediately introducing it. This is the
great lesson taught by the severe and ex-
tended drought Of the summer, and the
sooner it is needed the better, unless we are
prepared to brave, in some form, the horrors
of the famine, as witnessed last year in Ben
gal and at other times in some Of the fairest
countries on the globe.