OBSERVED IN nEIlTFOEDSHIRE IN 1897. G7 



frosts of the second -week in October. In my own gai'den the 

 dahlias whicli had escaped without injury five degrees of frost on 

 the niglit of October 6th, had the upper lialf of the plants killed 

 by eiglit degrees of frost on the following night. They, however, 

 lingered on in this crippled condition until Js'^oveniber 19tli, Avhen 

 they were killed to the ground by six degrees of frost. The 

 average date of the destruction of dahlias in tliis neighbourhood 

 for the previous twelve yeai's has been November 1st, so that last 

 year they were killed 18 days later than usual, and later than 

 in any other year except 1894. Mrs. Bishop states that at Watford 

 the very sharp frost of the 6th of October killed dahlias, heliotropes, 

 beans, etc. 



Apples and pears ripened their fruit earlier than usual, while the 

 young shoots of all kinds of fruit-trees, roses, etc., owing to the 

 favourable character of the autumn, also became well matured at an 

 unusually early date. 



Judging by the returns sent in to the ' Agricultural Gazette ' 

 from this county, the yield of wheat was, generally speaking, rather 

 under average, while that of barley and oats was about average. 

 Hay comes out as everywhere an abundant crop, beans as a good 

 crop, peas and turnips as about average, and potatoes and mangolds 

 as under average. 



Treating the fruit-crop reports contributed to the * Gai'deners' 

 Chronicle ' in the same way that we have done the agricultural 

 returns, we see at a glance that the year 1897 was by no means 

 a prolific one. Pears and all the small fi-uits yielded about average 

 crops, but the crop of apples was almost everywhere very poor, 

 while that of plums was even more scanty. 



The small number of wild fruits is noted by Mr. Willis. In the 

 hedges at Haiiienden he says there were but few sloes and not many 

 hawthorn or holly berries, but an enormous quantity of hazel-nuts. 

 On the other hand, Mr. Little mentions that at Hitchin the berries 

 of the holly and hawthorn were abundant. Taking the county as 

 a whole, I should say that the sparse flowering and fruiting of most 

 wild shrubs and trees was a very general phenomenon, and rather 

 difficult to satisfactorily explain, unless it be regarded as due to the 

 dry summer and Avet autumn of the previous year. The exceptions 

 were blackberries and nuts, which were unusually abundant. 



Deciduous trees, as a rule, retained their leaves unusually late 

 in the year, and the autumn tints were singularly fine. Our 

 observer at Watford, writing on November 20th, and remarking 

 on the beauty of the autumn tints, adds: " they have lasted but 

 a short time, and the trees are now almost leafless." 



The last plant on the list, the ivy, taking the mean of all the 

 observations sent in, flowered exactly a week in advance of its 

 average date. 



