1904] Relationship between Weather and Plant Growth. 49 



only by the slowness with which the snow melted in those cold, 

 ice-bound Marches, but also by the frost in the ground under the 

 snow tending to delay growth. 



It is not to be expected that two springs so unusually early, 

 two Marches of so remarkably high a temperature, will be fol- 

 lowed by a similar one. One of the conditions that make for the 

 early growth of plants is certainly present. I have found, by 

 digging down through the three feet of closely packed snow and 

 ic'e in the woods, that the ground there is not frozen though it is 

 in the open field. Therefore, when the snow disappears, or, in- 

 deed, before that, plant-growth will be possible in the woods. 

 But the snow this year is of unusual depth,* and will be longer in 

 melting, not only because there is more to go, but because the 

 very presence of such a mass of frozen matter makes for lower 

 temperatures. It is probable, however, that when spring does 

 come it will come in with a rush and be a rapid season. For with 

 temperature, as with other things, there is always a tendency to 

 rhythm, to wave-motion ; so that, as we are having temperatures 

 so constantly, so phenomenally low this winter, we may expect 

 unusually high temperatures later on. Although a cold winter 

 does not always presage a warm spring (it did not in 1875, the 

 coldest v.'inter on record, nor in 1883, nor in 1885), yet it is not 

 usual, Mr. Stupart informs me, to have more than three consecu- 

 tive months below normal. In dealing with the weather, how- 

 ever, it is certainly easier to be wise after the event. Long fore- 

 casts regarding the w^eather, indeed, partake rather of the nature 

 of guess work than of true prophesy. The conditions affecting 

 weather are so numerous, complex and remote, as to make 

 meteorology the most difficult and the most backward of all 

 sciences, not even excepting physiology. 



Finally, comparing the spring drouth of 1903 with previous 

 drouths at that season, we see how phenomenal it was. Mr. 



* As this article is being printed, I have ascertained the snowfall of the 

 past winter to be 105.7 inches, which is 8.8 inches above the averag-e for 

 thirty years. Even this heavy snowfall did not everywhere protect the ground 

 in the open during the past severe winter. The snowfall of the previous win- 

 ter was unusually light, being but 72.0 inches. .^''Vil*'"-* 



