11 March, 1918.] Crun-fire and Rainfall. 187 



About four years ago the First Lord of the Admiralty was asked in 

 the House of Commons whether he would instruct the Fleet to carry 

 out their heavy gun practice at some period of the year other than in 

 the middle of harvest time, ' when the resultant heavy rain may cause 

 serious loss to the farming community.' A similar suggestion was 

 made at the instance of a member of the Highland and Agricultural 

 Society of Scotland who, at a meeting of that body, moved that ' the 

 Admiralty be petitioned to discontinue heavy gun-fire round the coasts 

 in August and September, when clouds were about' (sic), the speaker 

 adding that ' firing was apt to bring down rain, and at that time of the 

 year fine weather was desirable.' It may be said at once that the idea 

 is absolutely without foundation. Experiments made some years ago 

 in America and on the Continent showed that in droughty weather no 

 amount of concussion in the air artificially produced had the slightest 

 effect in the production of rain, 



" At the present time there is one fact which should (one scarcely 

 likes to believe that it will) at once dispose of the cherished theory. 

 In spite of occasional displays of unwonted activity, there are no reasons 

 for thinking that gim-firing at the front is more violent than it was in 

 the earlier stages of the war. The spell of unsettled weather should 

 therefore, have commenced shortly after the outbreak of hostilities. As 

 a matter of fact, nothing of the kind took place. In August and Sep- 

 tember the rainfall in the south-east of England was, on the contrary, 

 much below the average, and in October there was again a considerable 

 though less marked deficiency. 



" As an instance of the unreliability of the notion respecting the 

 efl^ect of detonation upon rainfall, a correspondent of Si/mons Meteor- 

 ological Magazine drew attention some little time ago to the fact that 

 at Shoeburyness, where at certain seasons of the year big guns are being 

 fired almost daily, the average annual rainfall is smaller than in any 

 other part of the IJnited Kingdom." 



— Queensland Agricultural Journal, February, 1918. 



ORCHARD AND GARDEN NOTES. 



E. E. Pescott, E.L.S., Pomologist. 



The Orchard. 



Green Manures. 



If a cover crop of leguminous plants is required for green manuring 

 a start at planting may now be made. This can be done only when all 

 the fruit has been gathered from the trees. An early crop is a distinct 

 advantage. The cover crop should make a good growth before the winter 

 sets in, as the plants make very little headway in the cold weather, 



