Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Change Of Climate In The Middle Colonies Of North-America.
tion to this general rule . It is said , ' that Italy was better cultivated in the Augustan age than it is now ; but the climate is much more temperate now than it was at that time . This seems to contradia the opinion , that the cultivation of a country will render the air more temperate . ' I shall consider this observation the more attentively , because I find it has been made ban ingenious writerof great classical
eruy , dition . It is not to be dissembled that their winters in Italy Were extremely cold about seventeen hundred years ago . Virgil has carefully described the manner in which cattle are to be sheltered in the winter , lest they should be destroyed by the frost and snow ; he also speaks of wine being frozen in the casks , and several other proofs of such
extreme cold , as would surprize us in this province : though it is also clear , that the Italians are now as great strangers to cold and frost , as those of Georgia or South Carolina . To account fortius remarkable change , we must go beyond the narrow limits of Italy ; we must traverse the face of Hungary , Poland , and Germany , those vast regions to the northward of Rome . The Germans have
certainly made immense progress in population and agriculture , since Julius Caasar with a few legions over-ran that country ; for , notwithstanding the elegance with which Caesar describes his victories , he certainly had to contend with a set of barbarians and savages , whose country was rude and uncultivated as their minds . The general face of those kingdoms was covered with wild extensive forests , a few of
which remain to this day . The small scattered tribes who occupied them , had done very little towards the perfection of agriculture From these uncultivated desarts piercing north winds used to descend in torrents on the shivering Italian , though his own little commonwealth were finely cultivated . No person need be informed how numerous the nations are , who now inhabit Hungary , Poland , and Germany , or how generallthose ions are now cultivatedeven
y reg , to the very edge ofthe Baltic and German Ocean ; so that if the cold is greatly moderated in Germany , and the adjacent northern states , which I believe is generally allowed , we may easily perceive how it should be moderated to a much greaterdegree in Italy , which being in a low latitude , was only annoyed by the cold winds from the northern kingdoms . For ihe air was at that time so cold over those
uncultivated regions , that it wouicl effectually destroy the balance in the warmer atmosphere of Italy ,, which at present is not the case . As we might have conjectured from established principles of philosophy , that clearing and smoothing the face of a country would promote the heat of the atmosphere , and hi . many cases would prevent or mitigate those winter blasts , which are the general origin of cold , whence the
winters must become more temperate ; and as facts appear to support and confirm our reasoning on this subject , we-may rationally conclude , that in a series of years , when the virtuous industry of posterity shall hiive cultivated the interior part of this country , we shall seidom be visited by frosts or snows , but may enjoy such a tempeiafure in the midst of winter , as shall hardl y destroy the most tender plants .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
The Change Of Climate In The Middle Colonies Of North-America.
tion to this general rule . It is said , ' that Italy was better cultivated in the Augustan age than it is now ; but the climate is much more temperate now than it was at that time . This seems to contradia the opinion , that the cultivation of a country will render the air more temperate . ' I shall consider this observation the more attentively , because I find it has been made ban ingenious writerof great classical
eruy , dition . It is not to be dissembled that their winters in Italy Were extremely cold about seventeen hundred years ago . Virgil has carefully described the manner in which cattle are to be sheltered in the winter , lest they should be destroyed by the frost and snow ; he also speaks of wine being frozen in the casks , and several other proofs of such
extreme cold , as would surprize us in this province : though it is also clear , that the Italians are now as great strangers to cold and frost , as those of Georgia or South Carolina . To account fortius remarkable change , we must go beyond the narrow limits of Italy ; we must traverse the face of Hungary , Poland , and Germany , those vast regions to the northward of Rome . The Germans have
certainly made immense progress in population and agriculture , since Julius Caasar with a few legions over-ran that country ; for , notwithstanding the elegance with which Caesar describes his victories , he certainly had to contend with a set of barbarians and savages , whose country was rude and uncultivated as their minds . The general face of those kingdoms was covered with wild extensive forests , a few of
which remain to this day . The small scattered tribes who occupied them , had done very little towards the perfection of agriculture From these uncultivated desarts piercing north winds used to descend in torrents on the shivering Italian , though his own little commonwealth were finely cultivated . No person need be informed how numerous the nations are , who now inhabit Hungary , Poland , and Germany , or how generallthose ions are now cultivatedeven
y reg , to the very edge ofthe Baltic and German Ocean ; so that if the cold is greatly moderated in Germany , and the adjacent northern states , which I believe is generally allowed , we may easily perceive how it should be moderated to a much greaterdegree in Italy , which being in a low latitude , was only annoyed by the cold winds from the northern kingdoms . For ihe air was at that time so cold over those
uncultivated regions , that it wouicl effectually destroy the balance in the warmer atmosphere of Italy ,, which at present is not the case . As we might have conjectured from established principles of philosophy , that clearing and smoothing the face of a country would promote the heat of the atmosphere , and hi . many cases would prevent or mitigate those winter blasts , which are the general origin of cold , whence the
winters must become more temperate ; and as facts appear to support and confirm our reasoning on this subject , we-may rationally conclude , that in a series of years , when the virtuous industry of posterity shall hiive cultivated the interior part of this country , we shall seidom be visited by frosts or snows , but may enjoy such a tempeiafure in the midst of winter , as shall hardl y destroy the most tender plants .