32 EUROPEAN AGRICULTURE. 



season may have been peculiar. I landed in Liverpool near the 

 end of April ; and there was more or less rain for forty-six days 

 in succession, until I became quite satisfied that an umbrella was 

 as necessary as a hat. When the clear weather finally set in, 

 we had two months, or more, of as fine weather for harvesting 

 as I ever knew, with scarcely the intervention of a day s rain ; 

 yet there was nothing of the parching heat of our summers, and 

 I saw no land burnt up by drought. It is now December, and I 

 have scarcely seen any ice, and not a flake of snow ; and there 

 is no frost in the ground. Many persons speak of this as the 

 usual temperature, and say that the cold weather does not com 

 mence until after Christmas. The dews appear to me very light, 

 owing, as I suppose, to the mildness of the days ; and there have 

 been none of those blowing clouds of dust with which our air is 

 often charged, and which, with us, after long droughts, are very 

 disagreeable. Of thunder and lightning this season I am unable 

 to recall a single instance ; and at no time of the day has the 

 heat been in the slightest degree oppressive.* 



Their insular situation exposes them to frequent and dense 

 fogs, which interpose to prevent the earth being ever parched by 

 drought ; and the rains to which they are subject keep the earth, 

 where it is of a retentive character, much soaked with water, 

 and preserve an almost perpetual greenness of vegetation. 



In many parts of England, the crops of turnips are never pulled 

 until they are wanted for feeding in the course of the winter ; in 

 other places, they require a very slight covering to protect them 

 from the frost. In most cases, sheep do not require to be housed ; 

 and in some cases, neat cattle get their chief living in the fields 

 through a great part of the winter, though I cannot but regard 

 this practice as very bad husbandry. Ploughing appears to be 

 seldom interrupted for any length of time ; and wheat is sown 



* The annual average depth of rain in England is about two feet. In 1840, 

 for instance, the depth at Aberdeen was 24.6.27 inches ; at Empingham, 18.58 ; 

 Epping, 20.767; Falmouth, 31.511; Gosport, 25.525 ; Greenwich, 18.24 ; York, 

 24.72 inches. That is perhaps not much below the average of the continent of 

 Europe. Some portions of Western Europe, however, are exceedingly wet ; 123 

 inches have been noted to fall at Coimbra, in Portugal, in a year. The fall of 

 rain is still greater in the West Indies. At St. Domingo, 120 inches ; at Cay 

 enne, 116 inches ; at Maranham, 277 inches. So that even under the equator, a 

 sufficient supply of rain water can be obtained for the service of the inhabitants. 

 Farmer s Almanac. 



