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The Great Drought of 1896. By the Rev. CANON ELLACOMBE, 
M.A., President. 
(Read December 9th, 1896). 
If the great frost of 1895 was the most notable feature of the 
year, certainly the great drought was the most notable feature 
of 1896, yet neither the frost of the one, or the drought of the 
other, stood alone in the two years; they were preceded and 
followed by other conditions equally noteworthy, and it is the 
story of these conditions which will be the subject of my paper. 
The twelve months that have past between December Ist, 1895, 
and December Ist, 1896, divide themselves into three well-marked 
periods ; a very mild winter, a very dry spring and summer, and 
a very wet and cold autumn. It may be convenient to say some- 
thing of each of these separately. 
The mild winter comes first, and how very mild it was can be 
seen at once by this short record. Leaving out the previous 
_ Decembers, because they were almost alike, with seven days of 
slight frost in the one year, against six days of slight frost in the 
_ other, and confining ourselves to the three months of January, 
February and March, we find that there were in those three 
months of this year, twenty days in which the thermometer fell 
below 32°; in the same months of 1895 there were fifty-five 
such days; and this was notall; the frosts of 1895 were unusually 
severe, the frosts of 1896 were very slight. The thermometer in 
1896 was seldom below 30°, and the lowest reading was 26° on 
February 3rd. The thermometer in 1895 was often below 20°, 
and was as low as 10° on February 8th; and to put the matter 
shortly, the winter of 1895 was one of the coldest, and the winter 
of 1896 one of the mildest on record. 
Now, what were the results of this mild winter? They were 
very marked, and in some respects very unexpected. The most 
obvious result was that plants which had been weakened by the 
U Vou. VIIT., No. 4. 
