52 On Wiltshire Weather Proverbs and Weather Fallacies. 
And a third :— 
‘Plant your ’taturs when you will, 
They wont come up before April.” 
But again we have Wiltshire sayings which affirm what I believe 
to be an equally undeniable truth, that together with a prolonged 
winter, and a dripping spring, a dry summer is most to be desired 
by the husbandman. That however is a season we scarcely seem to 
have experienced last year (1873), when the old Devonshire proverb, 
applicable enough in that rainy county, might have been quoted 
with much truth, even here :— 
‘‘ The West wind always brings wet weather ; 
The East wind wet and cold together ; 
The South wind surely brings us rain; 
The North wind blows it back again ;” 
showing that from whatever point of the compas the wind blows, 
rain is sure to fall. That however, I am glad to think, is quite an 
exceptional state of things here; and it is very rarely indeed that we 
in this county experience so wet a summer. 
To return to the point we were considering: we have an old 
saying in North Wiltshire, when snow lies about in the ditches, 
and does not disappear, that “‘’tis waiting for more:” and in truth 
it does betoken a cold atmosphere, and more snow very often 
supervenes. 
Then February is known all over Wiltshire, as “ Pebruary jill- 
ditch,” alluding to the seasonable supplies of water which should fill 
the ponds during that month, otherwise a scarcity of drink for the 
cattle during summer would be dreaded; and so our people have 
the proverb :— 
‘¢ February fill the dyke, 
Either with the black or white; ” 

(meaning, either with rain or snow.) To which some add the 
halting termination :— 
** But if it be white 
It’s the better to like.” 

