AND METEOKOLOGV OF TIIK YEAR RELATIVE THERETO. olT 



METEOROLOGY. 



The harvest of 187') will be hm^i; rememljored as one of those 

 disastrous events in the history of our SeottLsh agriculture, 

 which the past 11 G years show to have occurred al)out once in a 

 generation. The immediate cause of this national calamity 

 was the unbroken cold weather which prevailed during the grow- 

 ing mouths of the year, and the inevitable accompaniments of 

 cold sumnu'r weatlun', viz., clouded skies, little sunshine, and 

 frequent and superalnnidant rain. 



From 1764, the year from which we possess a continuous 

 record of temperatures made with thermometers, there have 

 occurred five years when the deficit of summer heat was sO' 

 continued and so serious as to result in ilisastr(nis failures of 

 the crops. These years, with the average monthly deficiency 

 of temperature of the seven growing months from April to 

 October were, — (1), 1782, the " black auchty-twa," when the 

 mean deficiency of temperature amounted to 5^-1 ; (2), 1799, 

 the year of " the dearth," when the temperature was 3°'o below 

 the average; (3), 1816, when the temperature was 2°"9 deficient; 

 (4), ] 860, when the temperature was 2°-0 deficient; and (5), 1879, 

 when the temperature was 2''"4: below the average. 



JNluch the same story is told if we take the mean deficiency of 

 temperature for the five months from April to August. The figures 

 then show a deficiency of 5°-3 for 1782, 3°-8 for 1799, 3°-2 for 

 1 816, 2°-l for 1860, and 3°-2 for 1879. The significance of these 

 figures will be better seen if the results of an inquiry made in 

 1862 by the Scottish Meteorological Society under the direction 

 of the Marquis of Tweeddale, be kept in mind, by which it was 

 proved that a d(;ficiency of 2°-5 from the average tenqterature of 

 the grain growing districts, merely during the time from the 

 earing to the reaping of the crops, is insufhcient for their proper 

 ripening. Now in each of these five disastrous years this lower- 

 ing of the mean temperature was spread over seven months; and 

 it is to be remarked that, in 1879, from the middle of June to 

 the middle of August, the temperature was about 3°'5 under 

 the average over a large part of Scotland. 



In order to present in its broad features the weather of 1879, 

 seven maps have been constructed showing the degree to which 

 the temperature fell below the average of each month fi'om 

 April to October, or rose above it, over all parts of Scotland ; and 

 similarly, other seven maps showing the percentage of the rain- 

 fall above or below the average of the month. A set of tables 

 have also been prepared giving the daily rainfall for the same 

 months from many places representing the various districts. 

 From these maps and tables the following brief account of the 

 weather of Scotland during the gTowing months of 1879 has been 



