The Weather of 1904. 381 



markable degree the growth, and ripening, and safe in-gathering 

 •of all kinds of crops. The first ten days of April were, indeed, 

 unfavourable, owing to the boisterous and wet weather which 

 prevailed, resembling that of March rather than that of April, 

 and illustrating the well-known saying about the " borrowing 

 days ' ' — " March borrowed from April three days, and they were 

 wild." But in this case it was not three days only, but ten 

 days, or a whole third of the month. In consequence there was 

 considerable delay in the seed-time, and the fear was expressed 

 that the harvest might be late again, as in the preceding year. 

 But so favourable did the weather become in the latter part of 

 April and in the succeeding months, that the harvest, instead of 

 being late, was rather earlier than usual, as well as abundant. 

 The conditions of weather which secured this happy result were 

 so well expressed in a recent letter in the "Standard," entitled 

 "The Farmer's Year," by a Nithsdale farmer, that I think I 

 cannot do better than quote his words. He says : " The season, 

 taken all over, has been remarkable for long spells of fine 

 weather, followed by short spells of showery weather, beginning 

 with a good wet day and gradually tapering off." This occurred 

 again and again in the course of the summer months, ending in 

 ideal weather in September and October. I have already re- 

 ferred to the verification in April of a well-known weather saying 

 about the borrowing days. There is another which relates to the 

 month of October, which was as remarkably verified in the past 

 year. It is called St. Luke's little summer. St. Luke's Day is 

 the 1 8th of October, and about that period the weather is often 

 remarkably mild ; and it was so in a remarkable degree last year. 

 On calculating the temperature of the seven days, beginning with 

 the 17th and ending with the 23d, I found that the mean tempera- 

 ture of that period was 53 deg., whereas the average mean for 

 the whole month is only 47.6 deg. These current weather say- 

 ings have reference generally to comparatively warm or cold 

 periods occurring at seasons when weather of the opposite kind 

 might have been expected. And there is another relating to 

 November, to which I may refer, as verfied in the past year. 

 It is called St. Martin's little summer, beginning with the nth, 

 which is Martinmas. The warmth of the week beginning on that 

 day and ending on the 17th was something abnormal, viz., 48 

 deg., which is five degrees above the mean of the whole month. 



