THE 



GARDENER 



SEPTEMBER 1879. 



THE COLDNESS OF THIS SEASON AND NEXT 

 YEAR'S FRUIT - CROPS. 



CCORDING to the verdict of the Scottish Meteorological 

 Society, the mean temperature of the first six months 

 of this year has been lower by 5° than any correspond- 

 ing period of any year since 1763. So that it is quite 

 safe to say that no gardener living has had to contend with such 

 clouded skies and low temperature. It is very remarkable that the 

 highest temperature registered here (Nithsdale, Dumfriesshire) for 

 last July was 71°, while the mean of the maximum daily temperatures 

 for the month was a fraction over 60°, and June was slightly colder 

 than July. On the morning of the 10th of August the temperature 

 fell to 34° in a sparred case four feet from the ground, and on low-lying 

 grounds the grass was actually crisp with frost. 



The exceptional character of the season will, as a matter of course, 

 leave horticulturists a legacy of exceptionally unfavourable circum- 

 stances as bearing on next year's crops to contend with and overcome. 

 Perhaps there is no condition upon which satisfactory crops on all 

 fruit-bearing plants depend so much as on the perfect ripening of the 

 wood and buds, from which the future crop must come, and it is thus 

 a condition which all experienced cultivators strive to attain. Last 

 year being bright and warm, without any extremes that were calculated 

 to injure vegetation, the result has been very manifest this year in 

 the unusual crop of blossom on all flowering trees and shrubs. Un- 

 happily, however, the fruit harvest — owing to the unfavourable 

 character of this season — will rank amongst one of the most unsatis- 

 factory on record. And unless the autumn be one of unusual bright- 



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