Snow is often called the "poor man's manure;" and if it is true that
it has any manurial value, the farmer's prospects for the next season
are certainly flattering. The body of snow upon the ground in all the
Northern and Middle States is very great, and millions of acres of
land are covered by it as with a blanket of the whitest wool. It is
probable that seldom, perhaps never, has so wide an area of our
country been covered as during this month of January, 1877. The
question whether snow is capable of affording to lands any of the
elements of fertility is one often asked; and in reply, the Boston
_Journal of Chemistry_ says that it probably is. The atmosphere holds
ammonia and some other nitrogenous products, which are without doubt
brought to the soil by snowflakes as well as by rain drops.
Experiments both here and abroad would seem to prove the truth of this
conclusion.
Rains are not only valuable for the moisture which they supply, but
for what they bring to us from the atmosphere. During a thunderstorm
nitric acid is produced in considerable quantities; and dissolved in
the rain drops to a high degree of attenuation, its effects upon soils
are highly salutary, as the nitrogen permeates the entire soil.
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