Rainmaking

“ Rain-making chiefs always build their villages on the slopes of a fairly high hill, as they no doubt know that the hills attract the clouds, and that they are, therefore, fairly safe in their weather forecasts." Each of these rain-makers has a number of rain-stones, such as rock-crystal, aventurine, and amethyst, which he keeps in a pot. When he wishes to produce rain he plunges the stones in water, and taking in his hand a peeled cane, which is split at the top, he beckons with it to the clouds to come or waves them away in the way they should go, muttering an incantation the while. ”

“ It may nevertheless be true that snows of long duration in our winters may be less injurious to vegetation than great rains and shorter frosts, for two reasons. 1. Because great rains carry down many thousand pounds worth of the best part of the manure off the lands into the sea, whereas snow dissolves more gradually and thence carries away less from the land; any one may distinguish a snow-flood from a rain-flood by the transparency of the water. ”

“ The effects of rain on drained soil, in the heat of Summer, are, then, two-fold; to cool the burning surface, which is, as we have seen, much warmer than the rain, and, at the same time, to warm the subsoil which is cooler than the rain itself, as it falls, and very much cooler than the rain-water, as it is warmed by its passage through the hot surface soil. These are beautiful provisions of Nature, by which the excesses of heat and cold are mitigated, and the temperature of the soil rendered more uniform, upon land adapted, by drainage, to her genial influences. ”

“ It rays out and draws to it some floating films from secret cañons. Rain begins, "slow dropping veil of thinnest lawn;" a wind comes up and drives the formless thing across a meadow, or a dull lake pitted by the glancing drops, dissolving as it drives. Such rains relieve like tears.
The same season brings the rains that have work to do, ploughing storms that alter the face of things. These come with thunder and the play of live fire along the rocks. They come with great winds that try the pines for their work upon the seas and strike out the unfit. ”

“ One is almost tempted to think that the end is approaching. The very "flood gates of heaven" seem opened, and nature is dissolving. Such a body of rain is falling that the view of all above is obscured by the amazing fall of rain-drops. Think of the countless numbers of leaves in this forest, and that every leaf drops ten to twenty times per minute, and that from the soaking ground rises a grey cloud of minute rain in vapour, and that the air is full of floating globules of water and flying shreds of leaves! ”

“ The immense importance of the forest, as a reservoir of this stock of moisture, becomes apparent, when we consider that a large proportion of the summer rain either flows into the valleys and the rivers, because it falls faster than the ground can imbibe it; or, if absorbed by the warm superficial strata, is evaporated from them without sinking deep enough to reach wells and springs, which, of course, depend much on winter rains and snows for their entire supply. ”

“ I have said the rain is as necessary to man as to vegetation. You cannot have a rank, sappy race, like the English or the German, without plenty of moisture in the air and in the soil. Good viscera and an abundance of blood are closely related to meteorological conditions, unction of character, and a flow of animal spirits, too; and I suspect that much of the dry and rarefied humor of New England, as well as the thin and sharp physiognomies, are climatic results. We have rain enough, but not equability of temperature or moisture,—no steady, abundant supply of humidity in the air. ”

“ In summer, when the heat has been very great, the rain is often ushered in by a thunder-storm, and falls in torrents, which at an earlier season would do harm to the young buds and blossoms of spring; but now the vegetation is strong enough to resist the floods so necessary to maintain moisture in the parched earth. ”

“ So it is with the open spaces where there are no trees. And the moisture, which has all at once been absorbed by the air, is discharged in torrents instead of in gentle rains, as would be the case if there were trees and and it was absorbed gradually. Here again comes in the question of health, for floods and droughts are as hurtful to man as the soil which suffers from them. ”

“ The rain which falls on plains or gently undulating surfaces, although after a while it dries up, yet to some degree aids in levelling the land, partly by washing down particles of earth, however slowly, to lower levels, partly by soaking the earth and preparing a thin stratum of its upper surface to be converted into dust, and blown away by the wind. But it is when very heavy storms occur that the levelling action of rain over widely extending regions can be most readily recognized. ”

“ The mechanical action of rain, which is intimately bound up with its chemical action, consists in washing off the fine superficial particles of rocks which have been corroded and loosened by the process of weathering, and in thus laying open fresh portions to the same influences of decay. The detritus so removed is partly carried down into the soil which is thereby enriched, partly held in suspension in the little runnels into which the rain-drops gather as they begin to flow over the land, partly pushed downwards along the surface of sloping ground. ”

“ Defined scientifically, drought is not lack of rain. It is a dry soil condition in which plant growth slows or stops and plant survival may be threatened. The earth loses water when wind blows, when sun shines, when air temperature is high, and when humidity is low. Of all these factors, air temperature most affects soil moisture loss. ”

“ In the heaviest storms, some water will flow over the surface of even the dryest beach-sand; but, in a well drained soil the water of ordinary rains will be at once absorbed, will slowly descend toward the water-table, and will be removed by the drains, so rapidly, even in heavy clays, as to leave the ground fit for cultivation, and in a condition for steady growth, within a short time after the rain ceases. ”

“ The higher and drier a locality, there—provided there is some rainfall—will be found the most extraordinary rain carvings. The lack of abundant rain prevents the growth of vegetation and the altitude permits the rain torrents to carry loads of sand, and the more sand and velocity the greater the scouring. ”

“ The rainfall is the source of all underground water, and with the exception of certain deep-seated artesian wells the source is always the rain which falls in the immediate vicinity, as the physician knows when called to treat disease caused by seepage of the adjacent surroundings into the family well.
Part of the rainfall is quickly drained away by the surface channels, a part is evaporated, and a third, and for our consideration the most important part, is imbibed by the rocks and soil. ”

“ Where there is no moisture there can be no rain, for the air cannot draw up moisture to form clouds. Where there are many rivers there has been much rain, and the soil is kept fertile. Plants will grow in it. Do you see how our food, our clothing and our shelter are dependent upon rainfall? ”

“ The study of the rain-fall of a country is of considerable interest to agriculturists. The health and increase of domestic animals, the development of the productions of the land, as well as the daily labours of the farmer, are dependent upon the excess or deficiency of rain. ”

“ Again, there is the moist climate by the sea, or the quality of soil, the periodic torrential [Pg 9] rainfall of one section, and elsewhere the long months of drought.
Generally speaking, our country is, in most parts, a land of sunshine, with usually sufficient rain and moisture to benefit plant life, and while we grumble at our sudden changes in temperature, how few of us realize the blessing of an abundant sunshine pervading the "great outdoors" and incidentally the gardens! ”

“ In yet other regions, abundant moisture combined with heat covers the ground with a pad of fertile humus, while some hundred miles away drying trade winds parch and crack the steppe vegetation, convert most of its organic substance into gases, and leave only a small residue to enrich the soil. Rain itself modifies the relief of the land, and therefore often decides in a slow, cosmic way what shall be the ultimate destination of its precious store of water. ”

“ In other places vast efforts have been made to detain the abundant supply of rain which nature commonly provides in the spring of the year, to store it, and prevent it from flowing off down the river-courses to the sea, where it is absolutely lost. ”

“ Soon came a few big drops of rain, then a big wind, and as that lulled, more rain. Then came thunder and lightning, the air grew bitterly cold, and there came a pitiless hailstorm, hailstones bigger than a duck's egg fell, cutting the leaves from the trees and bruising their bark. ”

“ If it depended upon chance whether the dry air should come out on this side or on that of this calm belt, or whether the moist air should return or not whence it came—if such were the case in nature, we perceive that, so far from any regularity as to seasons, we should have, or might have, years of drought the most excessive, and then again seasons of rains the most destructive ”

“ The proportion borne by the available to the total rainfall varies very much, being affected by the rapidity of the rainfall and the compactness or porosity of the soil, the steepness or flatness of the ground, the nature and quantity of the vegetation upon it, the temperature and moisture of the air, which will affect the rate of evaporation, the existence of artificial drains, and other circumstances. ”

“ Instead of carrying the heat of the air, and of the surface of the ground, to the subsoil, the rain only adds so much to the amount of water to be evaporated, and increases, by so much, the chilling effect of evaporation. ”

“ The season during which rain falls is short, and the rain drains rapidly down comparatively steep inclined surfaces, so that science of many kinds has to be enlisted to conserve the water, and turn the supply to account. ”

“ Again, the most copious condensation both of dew and rain is greatly influenced by vegetation and especially by forests, and also by the presence of hills and mountains, and is therefore greater on land than on the ocean; while evaporation is much greater on the ocean, both on account of the less amount of cloudy weather and because the air is more constantly in motion. ”

“ In winter, of course, they are not needed. But throughout the long and rainless summer, when vegetation withers up and blows away, the steady sea-breeze keeps the wind-mills going, and these pump up water for a thousand irrigating purposes. ”

“ The benefit resulting from cultivating the surface of the ground is counteracted by the first unfavorable change of the weather; a single heavy rain, by saturating the soil, returning it to nearly its original condition of clammy compactness. ”

“ During the rainy season at the beginning of Autumn is the greatest risk from water. When it begins to rain all the hands should go out with picks and shovels and clear out the drains so that the water may flow off into the roads, and the crops be protected. ”

“ The climate is exceedingly arid, and the scant vegetation furnishes no protecting covering against the beating storms. But though little rain falls, that which does is employed in erosion to an extent difficult to appreciate by one who has only studied the action of water in degrading the land in a region where grasses, shrubs, and trees, bear the brunt of the storm. ”

“ The water should be let off on the morning of a dry day, and thus the land will be dry enough at night not to suffer from the frost; or the water may be taken off in the morning and let on again at night. In spring the newly grown and tender grass will be easily destroyed by frost if it be not protected by water, or if the ground be not made thoroughly dry. ”

“ The rain, which is pure water, except for the little particles of various things floating in the air which it brings down with it, soaks into the ground, forming springs, and helps to swell the ponds and lakes and rivers, and so it gets mineral and other substances in it again, especially salt, which is found in small quantities in all spring-water, and this impure water is carried to the ocean again to be purified ”

“ Wherever the water touches the land the vegetation is splendid, and, what is more, the evaporation is bringing heavier rainfall." Of course, wherever cultivation and irrigation are carried on, more evaporation takes place, and, in most cases, causes additional rainfall. ”

“ In time of a drought it is true that the indications which at ordinary times would be surely followed by a rain are of no value. [Pg 114] When a season is once established, either as a rainy season or a dry season, it is likely to persist in this character until a change comes that is produced by the movement of the sun in its course northerly and southerly, and the change produced from this cause requires several weeks of time. ”

“ We have now seen how trees can cause local rains; it will also be observed that the rain is formed chiefly above the forest, though it may be through the influence of winds that it falls to the earth for some distance around. By increasing the frequency of light rains, forests tend to obviate drought, which is of ultimate importance to the farmer's crops and vegetation in general. ”