I 



The Weather of the Past Agricultural Year. 119 



conditions were entirely I'eversed, a long continued deficiency 

 of rain in April and May resulting in a serious check in the 

 growth of pastures, and a consequent shortage in the hay crop. 



Temperature was as a rule above the average, the warmest 

 spells occurring respectively about the third week in April and 

 at a similar time in May. On the former occasion the ther- 

 mometer touched 75" in many parts of England and reached 

 76° at Halstead and in London (Camden Square). With the 

 advance of the season the readings on the latter occasion were 

 naturally somewhat higher, the shade temperatures between 

 May 20 and 22 being slightly above 80" at a few scattered 

 places in the east and south-east of England. Serious night 

 frosts were, however, experienced from time to time in many 

 inland districts. On or about April 16 and 26, and again 

 on May 2, potatoes and fruit blossoms in the midland counties 

 suffered considerable damage. Still later, when the state of 

 vegetation was more advanced, widespread mischief was 

 occasioned by a series of exceedingly sharp night frosts, which 

 occurred between May 25 and 27. In a few scattered localities 

 the young potatoes were entirely killed, and in a number of 

 places the damage to fruit blossoms, more especially to straw- 

 berries and raspberries, is said to have been greater than for 

 many years past In the west and extreme south of England 

 the frosts at this time were apparently too slight to cause any 

 serious anxiety to the agriculturist or fruit grower. 



Over a large portion of the western and southern districts 

 the rainfall of March amounted to between two or three times 

 as much as the average, and at a few places in the south-east of 

 England to about three and a half times as much. In April 

 and May there were two droughts, each extending over at least 

 a fortnight. The April drought set in about the 10th of the 

 month and continued until the close, some places in the south 

 and south-east of England experiencing also an entire absence 

 of rain during the first two days of May. Another rainless 

 period commenced about May 11 and lasted in some of the 

 southern districts until about the 27th. The two periods were 

 separated hj a week or more of very unsettled weather. On 

 May 8, and, singularly enough, a fortnight later, on May 22, 

 the neighbourhood of Oundle, in Northamptonshire, was visited 

 by a severe and destructive hailstorm, some of the stones 

 observed on the 22nd being as much as an inch in diameter. 

 Thunderstorms occurred in many districts between March 19 

 and 26, between April 2 and 10, and again on May 22 and 23. 



The mean temperature of the spring was above the average 

 in all parts of the country. Rainfall was deficient in most of 

 the northern and central disti-icts, but considerably above the 

 normal in the south and south-west. Owing mainly to the 



