THE FLORAL WORLD 



AND 



GARDEN GUIDE. 



NOVElNIBEPv, 18G6. 



THE SEASOI^, 186G. 



HE leaves are fallinf^, tlie sky is overcast, and as the days 

 shorten, we gladly turn from the chilly air and the 

 denuded woodlands to the cheerful coal fire that in the 

 season of the suspension of plant life, keeps us in 

 remembrance of our indebtedness to the vegetable 

 kingdom. After a succession of fine hot seasons we have once more 

 experienced the sad effects of long-continued rains, and a temperature 

 far below the average needful for a perfect maturation of the 

 fruits of the earth. The year 18G6, so far as it has hitherto pro- 

 ceeded towards its completion, has not been pre-eminently a bad 

 year, but it has been far t'roni what we regard as good in the amount 

 and character of its productions, and in its behaviour towards us 

 in regard to the enjoyment of out-door life. In the season when 

 fruit-trees were in bloom, there were long-continued rains, and a low 

 temperature, and the pollen was so generally destroyed that the fruit 

 crop of the season is far below the most ordinary averages. This has 

 been the case with trees under glass as much as with trees in open 

 quarters, and some part of the fruit failure may doubtless be attributed 

 to the excessive wetness of the later part of the winter, when through 

 the prevalence of a rather high temperature, the trees were for a long 

 time kept in a half growing condition, most unfavourable for their 

 future progress. But the weather was decidedly bad in the floweriDg 

 season of fruit-trees ; and doubtless had their condition then been of 

 the best, the result would have been but little different to that 

 which is now the subject of almost universal regret. The cereal 

 crops were not in the best possible condition at the period when they 

 first began to show signs of ripening. Yet had we been favoured 

 with brilliant weather during the mouth of August, there would no 

 doubt have been harvested something not ranch below an average of 

 wheat, oats, and barley. But, unfortunately, with the exception of 

 the earliest districts, the cereals were badly ripened, and great part 

 harvested soft, and in many places were wholly lost, owing to the 

 prevalence of wet weather from the middle of August to the middle 

 of October, when there was a sudden and delightful change to 

 sunshine, with east winds, for about ten days, and then the rain set 



TOL. I. KO. XI. 21 



