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117 



THE WEATHER OF THE PAST 

 AGRICULTURAL YEAR. 



In comparison with some recent years the weather of 1914 may 

 be regarded from the farmer's point of view as somewhat tame 

 and uneventful. The principal meteorological feature was 

 perhaps the irregularity of the rainfall, the weather being as a 

 rule either too dry or too wet. The absence of moisture in the 

 spring months resulted in a poor hay crop, and in many districts 

 considerable anxiety was occasioned by the disastrous night 

 frosts, which occurred more particularly in the closing week of 

 May. A deficiency of rain in the summer months was favour- 

 able to most of the cereals, but less so to the roots, which 

 presented here and there quite an impoverished appearance. 

 The harvest took place, however, under the finest possible 

 conditions, and although the usual local exceptions were noted, 

 the crops were, upon the whole, in excess of the average. In 

 the autumn a long drought interfered rather seriously with the 

 breaking up of the land, but after the middle of October good 

 rains were experienced, the change in the weather leading, 

 rather unfortunately, to one of the v/ettest winters on record. 



The Winter of 1913-14. 



The winter of 1913-14 was, upon the whole, not only 

 very mild, but also very dry, an unusual combination of 

 events at such a season of the year. In the most open winters 

 keen frost is however rarely unknown, and at the close of 

 1913 the country was visited by a tonch of cold which proved 

 the sharpest of the whole season. The lowest temperatures 

 occurred on the nights of December 30 and 31, when the 

 sheltered thermometer fell to 15°, or less in all but the eastern 

 and south-eastern counties, where it barely touched 20°. At 

 Rounton, in North Yorkshire, a reading of 9° was recorded, 

 and at Garforth, Worksop, and Marlborough the thermometer 

 sank to 10". On the surface of the ground the frost was 

 naturally more severe, the exposed thermometer at Worksop 

 sinking on the night of December 30 to as many as 4° below 

 zei'o. Snow fell at about the same time in nearly all parts of 

 the country, heavily in the north ; at Rounton the ground was 

 covered on December 30 to a depth of 9^ inches. With the 

 exceptions just noted, the frosts and snows of the winter were 

 of the slightest possible description, but for about a fortnight 

 around the middle of January, when a brisk Easterly wind 

 drifted over from the Continent, the air was cold and search- 

 ing, more especially in the south-eastern quarter of England, 

 where the thermometer for several consecutive days rose very 

 little above the freezing point. The latter spell of wintry 



