PHENOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS i^r NOVA SCOTIA, 1911. BY 

 A. H. MACKAY, LL. D., F. R S. C., Halifax. 



(Head May 13, 1912.) 



The phenochroiis of the ten phenological regions of Nova 

 Scotia were published in the Proceedings of the Royal Society 

 of Canada, from those of 1902 to those of 1909, and in the 

 Transactions of the Nova Scotia Institute of Science up to those 

 of 1904. Phenological dates from a few or more stations were 

 commenced to be published annually in both from the year 

 1892, including later, phenological dates from observation 

 stations throughout Canada. 



The most exact observations have been made through the 

 schools of Nova Scotia, the pupils on their daily way to and 

 from school reporting competitively to the teachers the first 

 ''finds." The object at first was the stimulation of Nature Study 

 in the schools. But the multitude of observers every day at 

 work, and the accurate checking of the observations by the 

 teachers, made the school work not only fuller in quantity and 

 more continuous in time, but practically as accurate as those 

 made by scientific observers. 



The schedules from each school are sent in by the 

 teachers to the inspectors who transmit them to the Educa- 

 tion Office, where they are bound in annual volumes and pre- 

 sented to the Provincial Science Library archives for the use 

 of future students of climate problems. Three hundred or 

 more of the best schedules are thus each year selected for 

 permanent record. This selection has for many years been done 

 by a staff of compilers who compute the phenochrons (average 

 phenological dates) for the subsections of each region, so as to 

 show the .effect of the coast line and altitudes in each region. 



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