The Library of Agricultural and Horticultural Knowledge: With an Appendix on Suspended Animation, Poisons, and the Principal Laws Relating to Farming and Rural Affairs

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The Author, 1830 - Agriculture - 523 pages
 

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Page 194 - ... matter, which mixes with the earthy materials of the rock. In this improved soil, more perfect plants are capable of subsisting ; these, in their turn, absorb nourishment from water and the atmosphere ; and, after perishing, afford new materials to those already provided. The decomposition of the rock still continues ; and at length, by such slow and gradual processes, a soil...
Page 493 - Beneath those rugged elms, that yew-tree's shade Where heaves the turf in many a mouldering heap, Each in his narrow cell for ever laid, The rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep.
Page 40 - ... there is less chance of moisture being thrown down from them by the mixture with cold air ; but when the warm and moist air is close to the surface, it is almost certain, that, as the cold air flows down into it, a deposition of water will take place.
Page 446 - Thus a sandy soil may owe its fertility to the power of the sub-soil to retain water; and an absorbent clayey soil may occasionally be prevented from being barren, in a moist climate, by the influence of a substratum of sand or gravel.
Page 40 - A rainbow can only occur when the clouds containing or depositing the rain, are opposite to the sun ; and in the evening the rainbow is in the east, and in the morning in the west ; and as our heavy rains, in this climate, are usually brought by the westerly wind, a rainbow in the west indicates that the bad weather is on the road, by the wind, to us ; whereas the rainbow in the east, proves that the rain in these clouds is passing from us.
Page 325 - The fermentation and putrefaction of organised substances in the free atmosphere are noxious processes ; beneath the surface of the ground, they are salutary operations. In this case the food of plants is prepared where it can be used...
Page 40 - I have observed generally a coppery or yellow sunset to foretell rain ; but, as an indication of wet weather approaching, nothing is more certain than a halo round the moon, which is produced by the precipitated water ; and the larger the circle the nearer the clouds, and, consequently, the more ready to fall. Hal. I have often observed that the old proverb is correct — A rainbow in the morning is the shepherd's warning ; A rainbow at night is the shepherd's delight.
Page 194 - The feldspar, which is as it were the cement of the stone, forms a fine clay: the mica partially decomposed mixes with it as sand; and the undecomposed quartz appears as gravel, or sand of different degrees of fineness. As soon as the smallest layer of earth is formed on the surface of a rock, the seeds of lichens, mosses, and other imperfect vegetables which are constantly floating in the atmosphere, and which have made it their...
Page 319 - ... noxious gases to the atmosphere. By covering dead animals with five or six times their bulk of soil, mixed with one part of lime, and suffering them to remain for a few months, their decomposition would impregnate the soil with soluble matters, so as to render it an excellent manure, and by mixing a little fresh...
Page 399 - ... and hind part of the head. Towards the end of the fourth day, the two auricles, already visible, draw nearer to the heart than they did before.

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