The Herald And News

His Beneficial Effect Upon the Soil in Incalculable, and He Performs Other Services.

Let those who will growl when icicles hang on the wall. To millions Jack Frost comes as a friend, and not always in disguise, either.

His influence on soil is wonderful, says London Tit-Bits. Besides reducing it to a much finer state of tilage than can be produced by any implements known to man, it improves its fertility and adds to its quantity.

The highest counts of bacteria in soil—and there may be 100,000,000 in a grain—have been obtained in hard winters, and it is during such seasons that the disintegration of rock which produces fresh particles of soil goes on most rapidly.

As water passes from the liquid to the solid state its expansive power is about 150 tons to a square foot, which is equal to the weight of a column of rock about one-third of a mile in height. Then comes the thaw, and as the water contracts away crumbles the surface of the rock, to go to make the soil from which we draw our sustenance.

Out in the Cotswolds, when winter is coming on, they turn blocks of stone grain upwards, so that the rain shall soak into the layers. A thaw succeeds a frost, and then the blocks are tapped with a hammer, whereupon they fall into flakes, ready, after a little trimming for roofing houses.

So, too, you may see the slaters working at Collyweston, near Stamford: When there is a likelihood of frost, the men dash water on the edges of the masses of slate which have been brought up from the pits or quarries. If there are two frosts in rapid succession, with a quick thaw between, all is well, as the slate splits into layers.

But a spell of mild weather means that the material becomes useless for anything except conversion into rubble.