CLIMATE AND TREE GROWTH 107 



April usually resembles March as regards fickleness, 

 but the lengthening day and increase in sun heat bring 

 about a general development of all forest growth. To 

 the nurseryman and planter April is usually a month 

 of anxiety in many ways, but especially with regard 

 to two-year larch, many millions of which may be 

 practically ruined by a night's frost in this month. To 

 the planter, April rain or drought generally decides 

 whether new plantations are to succeed or fail, for unless 

 autumn- planted, a dry April means a trying time to 

 many trees. The proverbial showers with which April is 

 usually credited are not always forthcoming, while the 

 temperature usually remains low throughout the month. 

 Of the two, a cold, backward April is preferable to a warm 

 and early month, for whatever the variations of other 

 seasons may be, it would appear that a certain amount of 

 cold is an invariable ingredient of the three spring months, 

 and premature warmth is always followed by unseasonable 

 cold. ^' 



But of all months in the year that of May is probably JT. 

 the most critical of any to the forester and outdoor 

 gardener. The poet has immortalised May as the symbol i): 

 of hope and resurrection, a month of balmy airs and 

 sunny days, heralding the approach of summer, and the 

 retreat of winter's gloomy skies and chilling winds. About 

 once in eight or ten years, perhaps, the British climate 

 enjoys what may be termed a poetical May, and when 

 this occurs the true lover of nature enjoys a brief taste of 

 Paradise. But the actual, matter-of-fact May is usually 

 something different. In many years, cold easterly and 

 northerly winds prevail, with usually little rain and low 

 night temperatures, which bring about the frost so 

 dreaded by all having to deal with vegetation of any 

 kind. For a day or two at a time more genial winds and 

 a rainy-looking sky promise growing weather, but the 



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