THE CLIMATE OF THE NORTH COAST OF WALES. 221 
least considerable extremes of heat and cold, or the exact 
opposite of that of our coast, where, as I ascertained by con- 
current hygrometric observations for some years, it is decidedly 
moister than even at Chester. Yet most inhabitants of this city 
think they are ‘‘ braced” by a change to the Coast! The fact 
probably is that the change, from some unknown cause, does 
improve their bodily health, and the sensation of this improve- 
ment gives the impression of being ‘‘ braced.” 
Finally, let us consider what the economical effects of the 
difference between the south-east of England and our district 
are. Agriculturally, this difference means that the former is 
a wheat, country and the latter a dairy and stock-breeding 
country. And this again means that in the former the competi- 
tion of the cheap land of America, and the cheap labour of India, 
has ruined farmers, impoverished landlords and clergymen, and 
thrown thousands of acres of land (temporarily at least) out of 
cultivation, with all the concomitant distress to other classes 
implied by these conditions. In the latter, the distress has been 
comparatively trifling, and that, I think I may venture to say, in 
direct proportion to the amount of atmospheric humidity. Here, 
too, the insect pests that cause serious injury to farmers and gar- 
deners, and to the south-east are comparatively innocuous. Again, 
the same comparative immunity (compared with our southern 
neighbours) extends to gardeners. In Cheshire, certainly, the 
Gooseberry Sawfly is often a pest, but I have never seen it at 
Colwyn Bay. In the south the havoc wrought among fruit trees 
by the larva of the November moth was very serious in 1890— 
has any gardener here ever suffered seriously from it ? In short, 
TI cannot name a single insect that does serious damage to farm or 
garden crop on our North Wales Coast! But, on the other hand, 
we miss those additional degrees of solar heat to ripen both the 
wood and the fruit of our Pears and Apples, and it is vain to 
expect either the quantity or quality of fruit that the Kentish 
gardener grows. But much may be done by the choice of sunny 
sites and by modes of training trees so as to give wood and fruit 
the greatest possible exposure to the sun; and the greater 
freedom from severe spring frosts is in our favour. On the 
whole, we of the north-west have reason to be thankful for our 
moist atmosphere. 
G2 
