66 On Wiltshire Weather Proverbs and Weather Fallacies.- 
grafts nor young shoots will come to their full growth. So we have 
the Wiltshire proverb :— ~ 
*¢ Leap year 
Never was a good sheep year.” ® 
I need scarcely say that these are all popular delusions, founded 
on no reliable basis, though doubtless they do occasionally, however 
unfrequently, by accident, come true; and then they attract un- 
merited attention, and are held up to admiring disciples as infallible 
weather-guides. 
One thing however seems quite certain, and that is that if our 
obervations are recorded through a long period of time, there will 
be found to be a balance of averages, both as regards heat and cold, 
and wet and dry weather: and in short the general average through 
the whole period will be found to be maintained. 
So true is another Wiltshire proverb :— 
‘‘ No one so surely pays his debt, 
As wet to dry, and dry to wet; ” 
or, as they have it in Scotland :— 
“‘ Lang foul, lang fair.” 
More or less accurate too, as generally founded on experience, are 
other common proverbs we have with reference to rain and wind ; 
thus :-— 
“The winds of the day time wrestle and fight 
Longer and stronger than those of the night.” 
‘A sunshiny shower 
Never lasts half-an-hour.” 
‘‘ Sunshiny rain 
Will soon go again.” 
«¢ When the wind is in the South 
It is in the rain’s mouth.” 

*In France we find the pithy proverb :-— 
** Année bissextile 
Année infertile.” 
