April 29, 1875.] 



JOURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 



325 



EFFECTS OF THE EAST AND NORTH-EAST 

 WINDS. 



I; T may appear something like borticultnral 

 treason to say anything in favour of the 

 parching east wind of whose pernicious 

 effects couplets, based on the experience of 

 past ages, have long ago vented a meed of 

 abuse very much approaching a curse, and 

 compilers of almanacs have added their 



hot dry summer does on lands that may be fallow at the 

 time, the air being enabled to penetrate where the mois- 

 ture had been withdrawn, and hence the beneficial effects 

 of the otherwise uninviting east and north-east winds. 

 In an usual way we are visited with easterly winds for a. 

 considerable time every spring at a period when the soil 

 requires drying, and the presence of the wind is hailed 

 as the commencement of a new state of things, and the 

 drying effects of it are very acceptable. 

 Of the causes which render the east wind so pernicious 



quota of dislike to the drying currents of ' in some respects it is not our purpose to inquire. Suffice it 



"" to say that in this immediate neighbourhood the number 



of days in which it blows from that direction is fewer than 

 any of the other seven directions into which the compass 

 is roughly divided. By taking the observation at noon 

 each day I find the yearly average of days for plain east 

 is about seventeen, while that of north-east is sixty-two ; 

 this being for a period of twenty-five years, the average 

 may be regarded as a fair one. The south-west wind is the 

 most prevalent, as well as generally the highest ; while 

 that from the north-east is deprived of much of its wither- 

 ing influences when it visits us in August and September, 

 as it seems to have all the softness of that from a con- 

 trary direction, and vegetation is not a sufi'erer from it, 

 further than that it is often attended by prolonged dry 

 weather, and rain is hopelessly wished for during the 

 time ; nevertheless we now and then have very heavy 

 rain with the wind in that quarter, the popular notion 

 being that if we have rain at all with a north-east wind 

 we are likely to have a good deal of it, and it often is so. 

 On more than one occasion we have had considerably 

 over an inch of rain within the twenty-four hours with a 

 north-easter. 



This is more especially likely to be the case in summer; 

 in March a dry, chilly, cold atmosphere is more generally 

 prevalent, which is good for the land that is in tillage, as 

 has been explained, but not by any means agreeable to 

 newly-planted plants, be they small herbaceous plants or 

 evergreen shrubs ; in fact, I am not sure if May be not 

 a better month for the removal of the latter than March, 

 as, a more genial atmosphere and a more quick root- 

 action following, the plants do not suffer by the delay in 

 waiting for a suitable season in which to repair the 

 damages done to the roots, &o., by the removal. Never- 

 theless March is often of necessity an important planting 

 month, trees and shrubs are not always ready before, 

 and in the case of deciduous trees it answers very well if 

 the operation be well done and the soil is in a fit state to 

 receive the plants. 



But all soil operated upon is not in a fit state ; even 

 that which is in tillage may have been turned up in wet 

 weather, and its component parts may have been unduly 

 trod upon and compressed when in a wet state, and hard, 

 unkind, ugly lumps be the result, the lumps resembling 

 in some degree sun-dried bricks, and if the planting 

 has to be done before these yield to the mellowing in- 

 fluences of the wind alluded to, success is very uncertain. 

 Where of necessity work must be done and crops put in 

 while the soil is in this condition, they ought to receive 

 No. 1887.— Vol. LIIL, Old Sehies. 



W^ au' coming from that quarter. Yet some- 



how, like most other evils, the east wind is 

 not altogether devoid of some useful qualities, and al- 

 though it may not be good for either man or beast, as the 

 distich goes, it exercises a beneficial influence on what both 

 man and beast depend on for supplying their wants. 



" Mother earth," especially when under au artificial 

 course of management, derives considerable advantage 

 from the unpleasant east wind ; and for road-making 

 it far exceeds Macadam or the other great authorities 

 whose opinion in that way is so much acted upon. But 

 it is only in the limited arena of artificial works that 

 road-making by mechanical means is resorted to, and 

 useful as that area is, it bears but a small proportion to 

 the extent of surface which the east wind and its kindred 

 one from the north-east operates so advantageously upon 

 for all the purposes of easy and agreeable locomotion. 

 In other words, the drying wind we have from that 

 direction, licking up, as it does, every semblance of 

 moisture, prepares the ground to receive any reasonable 

 amount of weight upon it, which it could not bear with- 

 out injury when in a wet state. So much, then, for the 

 uses of the east wind in that respect. 



Let us now see how it affects the husbandman, or 

 rather the tillage land which he has to deal with, as well 

 as the various squares and plots ia the kitchen garden 

 that may be more or less under its influence, and not 

 forget the fashionable flower beds which at tliis season 

 may be still more immediately within the scope of its 

 operation. These and all other plots of cultivated ground 

 so evidently benefit by the drying influence of this so- 

 called nasty east wind, that we are constrained almost 

 against ourselves to say something in its favour, notwith- 

 standing the many diseases and discomforts it is blamed 

 for bringing in its train. But as these matters have their 

 exponents elsewhere, let us see how it acts as a fertilising 

 agent, and a very slight survey will enable us to see that 

 its influences tell to great advantage in the preparing of 

 the soil for the various crops that may be put upon it. 

 By its being the means of abstracting a great deal of the 

 superfluous moisture by which the soil is saturated, and 

 by penetrating itself, the hitherto soddened ground be- 

 comes to a great degree aerated, and in due time falls in 

 a mellow form to the touch, and consequently all its 

 component parts become available to the action of the 

 roots of plants that may be planted upon it. In this 

 respect the east winds of a dry March in some degree 

 exercise the same fertilising mellowing powers that a 



No. 735.— Vol, XXVm., New SsaiEa. 



