252 A LIFE'S WORK IN IRELAND. 



subject of Irish climate, has been good enough also 

 to suggest to me that anotlier subsidiary action, 

 connected with those of temperature and moisture, 

 that plays a sensible part in the phenomena, is the 

 frequent lowering of tcm'pcraiure, which occurs in 

 July in .connection with the arrival of the mass of 

 condensed vapour from the Atlantic, and which, 

 unhappily for the cereals, occvirs at the St. Swithin 

 period, just at the time when it is most injurious to 

 them, although advantageous to green crops. This 

 shows itself very decidedly in the annual curves of 

 temperature as well as of rainfall. 



Mr. Whitley, in an article in the Journal of the 

 Eoyal Agricultural Society, gives the average summer 

 temperature of Cork at 65°, being, as he adds, the 

 highest in the British Islands. There can be no 

 doubt that this is founded on erroneous observations. 

 There is no such average summer temperature as 65° 

 in Ireland. It is probable that the average summer 

 temperature of the South of Ireland is about 60°. 

 But 60° is a sufficient average temperature for grow- 

 ing wheat well. It is much more than a sufficient 

 temperature for growing oats, which are believed 

 only to require from 54° to 57°. Yet good crops 

 of wheat can seldom be grown in Ireland, especially 

 in the South, and even oats, though so much hardier, 

 do not grow so well as in England and Scotland, 

 especially on land that is highly farmed. My ex- 

 perience is that it is increasingly hard to get a 



