26 PRINCIPLES OF GAP.DENING. [CH. I. 



This s}Tichronical mode of regulating the opera- 

 tions of the cultivator of the soil is no modem sug- 

 gestion, but the efforts of Barck and his successors 

 have only been to find such indications in our north- 

 em clime that would be of the same utility, and 

 similarly admonitory as others adopted by the an- 

 cients in more simny latitudes. Thus Hesiod says, 

 If it rain three days together when the Cuckoo sings, 

 then late sowing will be as good as early sowing ; 

 and in another place, when snails begin to move and 

 climb up plants, cease from digging about vines, and 

 take to pruning. 



That our operations may be made justly s}ti- 

 chronical vdth certain appearances in nature is sup- 

 ported even by our present limited knowledge. " It 

 is wonderful," says Mr. Stillingfleet, " to observe 

 the conformity between vegetation and the arrival of 

 certain birds of passage. I will give one instance as 

 mai'ked down in a diary kept by me in Norfolk, in 

 the year 1755. 'April ICtli. Young Figs appear; 

 the 17th of the same month the Cuckoo sings.' 

 Now the word xo-^iv^ signifies a Cuckoo and the 

 young Fig, and the reason given for it is, that in 

 Greece they appeared together. I will just add, 

 that the same year I first found the Cuckoo Jioicer in 

 blossom the 19th of April." 



"Linnaeus says, that the Wood Anemone blows 

 when the Swallow arrives. In my diary for the year 



