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east of it. The diagram shown in this connection will give as good an idea of the plan of the phenomena as can be shown by a crude cut. In studying the diagram the reader will turn his back to the north, hold the diagram above his head and look up at it. Then

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by imagining himself a mere speck standing directly under the zenith point he will get a fair idea of the appearance of the heavens. The relative distance between the sun dogs and their relative positions along the main belt is correct enough for all practical purposes on this occasion, and corresponds, as near as can be designated, with Dr. Kempster's chart.

According to measurement the distance from the zenith to the spectrum, and from the spectrum to the circle around the sun, and from the circle to the sun, are all equal. The circle around the sun was a trifle larger than the circle of the spectrum. At one time the circle of the spectrum was complete and well defined, so the center could be ascertained and found to be the zenith. One peculiarity was that the half circle of the spectrum was not directly between the zenith and the sun. A line drawn from the center of the sun cut across the spectrum so as to leave two-thirds of it on the west

side and one third on the east side. A line directly north and south through the zenith cut across the spectrum, so as to leave one-third on the west side and two-thirds on the east side.

Another remarkable feature was that the convex side of the spectrum was towards the sun, and not the concave side, as is usual with rainbows. Dr. Kempster is at loss to explain this, except on the theory that instead of through rain drops the refraction was through floating particles of ice in the atmosphere, which were so influenced by the currents of the air as to produce a reversal of the effect of the refraction. In fact when looking at the spectrum the eye could perceive minute particles of quivering ice and crystals glistening in the colors of the beams in which they floated. Another peculiarity was as to color of the sun dogs nearest the sun. The red color was next to the sun and the blue was away from it. while, usually, the blue or violet is nearest the sun and the red away from it.

Careful record was also kept of the weather during the prevalence of this phenomena. In the upper regions a rapid wind was prevailing from southwest to northeast, the barometer fell rapidly, while the thermometer rose rapidly. The phenomena continued far into the afternoon. About noon, a second outer circle appeared about the sun, the edge of which just touched the convex edge of the spectrum. The philosophical and astronomical explanation of all this is a matter for those astronomically versed to figure out. The appearance of the ring around the sun, with the sun dogs on each side, is a frequent occurrence, but the broad horizontal belt circling above the horizon, the sun dogs at irregular distances upon it, and the peculiar spectrum overhead, are things rarely seen, and may possibly never be witnessed in this section again.

There was a partial eclipse of the sun, at sunrise in the morning, visible, however, only as far west as Illinois; but this is not thought to have had any influence at all in creating the peculiar phenomena later in the day.

THE PROBLEM OF AMERICAN LAND HOLDING.

(A lecture delivered at the organization of the American Agricultural Association, December, 1879, by Hon. GEORGE B. LORING, of Massachusetts.)

Gentlemen: The organization of a National Agricultural Society at this time is a matter of deep interest to all who are directly or indirectly engaged in pursuing and developing the great occupation on which a large portion of our people depend for subsistence, and on whose judicious management rests much of the prosperity of our varied national industry. It is entitled, moreover, to thoughtful and favorable consideration on account of the opportunity it offers for mutual understanding and good will between the various states and sections of our country. And I have consented to encourage by formal address this effort, from a desire to point out to the land owners and land cultivators of the United States the true character of their calling and the spirit which should animate it everywhere, as distinguished from the farming of every other people on the earth.

In doing this I shall not discuss those practical questions over which so much investigation has been conducted by agricultural inquirers and explorers for so many years; questions which have been settled and unsettled repeatedly by debaters and writers, and have been decided at last by the practical workers. It cannot be expected that I should enter upon a disquisition on the best modes of farming, the best crops to raise and how to raise them, the best cattle to keep and how to keep them. I think it is well to recognize the fact that the farmers of this country know something about their business already, and that the manner in which prosperous agriculture has been thus far conducted by themselves and their fathers indicates a degree of knowledge which is entitled to respect and consideration. I do not recognize the necessity of teaching a farmer who has been successful with his dairy and has known a good cow from a bad one, the best cattle for his farm. I have no desire to prove to the prosperous growers of vegetables in this section, that they ought to turn their attention to raising corn, even in a latitude of short and doubtful seasons, and that they can raise it for thirty cents a bushel regardless of the value of the land on which it is raised, the cost of manure used in raising, and the

expense of the labor employed in managing the land and the crop. I should be very relucant to impress upon the practical farmers of this assembly who have learned by their own experience and that of their fathers, that herds grass, red top and clover are the three staple grasses for conversion into hay, the best for seeding, the best for protecting each other, the best for curing into the most nutritious and marketable hay. I should be very reluctant, I say, to impress upon them that they had better abandon these well known and well proved varieties, and resort to unknown and untried varieties, not one of which has yet been adopted as a foundation for the hay crop.

I should hesitate about endeavoring to prove to you that a clover crop is a better fertilizer than barn yard manure, on which you have been in the habit of relying. I have no desire to tell the farmers of this country, who have been all their lives engaged in cutting and curing hay, how to harvest this important crop, when I meet in every populous region loads of their hay bound to a neighboring market, whose fragrance charms the traveler on our highways and whose quality stands approved both by judicious purchasers and hungry animals. Why should I try to teach you the best time to sow grass seed, and to plant potatoes, and to sow your grain, and harvest your mangold and swedes, and the best way to apply your manure, when your own experience has taught you all this long ago? Questions like these I am willing to refer to an intelligent body of farmers who have generally exercised good judgment in the management of their business, and to realize that they already know that plan of farming best suited to the land they cultivate. I am aware that the farmer cannot afford to devote season after season to trying experiments suggested by some restless theorist, or by some ambitious teacher who thinks that all change is progress, and that no law can be learned by practice, and who feels that he must say something in order to earn his salary. I am also aware that a well devised, definite, prosperous plan is of the highest importance to him who proposes to live by tilling the soil, and I have noticed that he who simplifies this plan most readily and pursues it most steadily, undiverted by promises and unconfused by theories, never captivated and misled by the idea that there is a short and easy road to successful farming, more than there is to great learning, is the one who arrives at that prosperity which we all desire.

I am quite unwilling to discuss practical questions merely for the sake of discussion, knowing well that while I stand still to debate, the weeds will grow apace.

And so, referring the anxious student of agriculture to the successful corn growers, and grass growers, and grain growers, and root growers, and fruit growers, and dairy managers, and cattle feeders, for information upon the various topics in which each one has manifested skill, and warning him that they who talk the most oftentimes produce the least, I leave you to the knowledge which the best of you have acquired by practice, and call your attention to a matter of fundamental importance to you all, a question upon the solution of which in a satisfactory manner depends the very existence of agriculture as an industry to be cherished and developed by a free, enlightened, educated, and ambitious people.

We are told that the great mass of mankind live by tilling the soil, in every civilized country on earth; but while this fact is constantly impressed upon our minds, we are not so definitely informed with regard to the manner in which they live, their social condition, their civil relations, their domestic economy. The condition of those employed in manufactures and the mechanic arts varies, we are aware, as the place in which they are organized in various countries varies; prosperity, thrift, intelligence, being secured to some, poverty and ignorance being visited on others. And judging by the various conditions of associated man, in the many countries in which society is organized, we can infer that the agricultural population of our country differs from the agricultural population of another as their domestic conditions, their modes of education, their social and civil obligations and duties differ. The tenant farmers of Great Britain, the peasantry of Russia, the farmers of Germany, the small land holders of France, the agricultural citizens of the United States, all represent one industry; and yet how widely they differ in everything which goes to make up man's condition as an intelligent being and as a member of some form of state and society! So true and striking is this that I am sometimes inclined to think that the moral, intellectual and social condition of the agricultural population of a country is more

indicative of its real civilization and of its advancement in all the arts and cultivation of life, than are its churches and school houses, its systems of education and religion!

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