OBSKRVKD IN IIERTFOlinsniRE IN 1899. 177 



Tlio fro(]iiont moderate frosts which occurred at the end of May, 

 when many apple and other fruit trees AA'cro in full blossom, did 

 considerable damage. For my own pai't I cannot but think that 

 the dry condition of the subsoil in the previous summer, by lowering 

 the vitality of the trees themselves, must also to a great extent be 

 held answerable for the way in which the fruit blossom fell on this 

 occasion such an easy victim to tliese moderate frosts. 



As miglit have been expected, wild plants were as a rule late in 

 coming into flower. For instance, the wood-anemone was twenty- 

 one days late, the blackthorn throe days late, the garlic hedge- 

 mustard two days late, the horse-chestnut five days late, the 

 hawthorn two days late, and the white ox-eye six days late. 



The spring migrants made their appearance somewhat behind 

 their usual time, the swallow being as much as nine days late, the 

 cuckoo six days late, and the nightingale eight days late. 



The wasp first appeared thirteen days late, the small white 

 butterfly four days early, the orange-tip butterfly twelve days late, 

 and the meadow-brown butterfly thirteen days early. 



The Summer. 



This was a singnlarly hot snmmer. Indeed, on no fewer than 

 twenty-two days the temperature in shade rose to or exceeded 

 80 degrees. The rainfall was very light, and there was an 

 unusually small number of rainy days. The snn shone on an 

 average for nearly eight hours a day, or for a longer period than 

 in any summer during the fifteen years covered by my sunshine- 

 records at Berkhamsted. 



Favoiu'ed by the dry and sunny weather, the hay harvest was 

 carried out with expedition and under the best possible conditions. 

 Unfortunately the absence of rain in the early part of June, and the 

 low temperature at the end of May, had so checked the growth 

 of the grass at this critical period that the hay-crop proved an 

 unusually scanty one. The light rainfall did not appear to 

 seriously affect the cereals, except in so far that they were all 

 much shorter in the straw than usual. Tm-nips, however, suffered 

 severely, and in many localities, owing to the attacks of " fly," 

 it was difficult to olatain any yield at all. In fact, there has 

 seldom been a season which has proved from beginning to end 

 so disastrous to the growth of this particular crop. The com, 

 favoured by the forcing weather, ripened rapicUy. As had been 

 the case with the hay, the ingathering of the cereals took place in 

 the most favourable weather, and consequently with a minimum 

 amount of trouble. The growth of the grass in the meadows and 

 pastures when once the drought had set in was soon brought to 

 a standstill, so that during a great part of the season there was 

 little feed for the sheep and cattle in the fields. 



If a trying season to the turnips and grass on the farms, it was 

 also an equally trying one in the vegetable and flower garden. 

 In fact, as the summer advanced it was only by constant hoeing 

 and watering, or by the application of an efficient mulching, that 



