5^ IVansactions of the Horticultural Society. 



instances, greatly diminished ; and upon the estate where I was born, and 

 which I now possess, my title-deeds, and the form of the ground, prove a 

 mill to have stood in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and probably at a good 

 deal later period, in a situation to which sufficient water to turn a mill- 

 wheel one day in a month cannot now be obtained in the latter part of the 

 summer and autumn. Under these circumstances the ground must neces- 

 sarily become much more dry in the end of May than it could have been 

 previously to its having been enclosed, and drained, and cultivated ; and it 

 must consequently absorb and retain much more of the warm summer rain 

 (for but little usually flows off) than it did in an uncultivated state; and 

 as water in cooling is known to give out much heat to surrounding bodies, 

 much warmth nuist be communicated to the ground, and this cannot fail 

 to affect the temperature of the follov.'ing autumn. The warm autumnal 

 rains, in conjunction with those of the summer, must necessarily operate 

 powerfully upon the temperature of the succeeding winter ; and, consist- 

 ently with this hypothesis, I have observed that during the last forty 

 years, when the weather of the summer and autumn has been very wet, 

 the succeeding winter has been cold and cloudy, but without severe frost 

 [This is in direct contradiction to facts stated in the Magazine of Natural 

 Histort/, vol. iii. p. 538.], probably in part owing to the ground upon the 

 opposite shores of the Continent being in a state similar to that on this 

 side the Channel." 



Common laurels, in a high and cold situation, which usually 

 lost a very large portion of the annual wood many years ago, 

 were observed by Mr. Knight to escape all injiuy after such 

 wet seasons. 



" Supposing the ground to contain less water in the commencement of 

 winter on account of the operation of the drains above mentioned (as it 

 almost always will, and generally must do), more of the water afforded by 

 dissolving snows, and the cold rains of winter, will be necessarily absorbed 

 by it ; and in the end of February, however dry the ground may have been 

 at the winter solstice, it will almost always be found saturated with water 

 derived from those unfavourable sources ; and as the influence of the sun 

 is as powerful on the last day of February as on the 15th da}' of October, 

 and as it is almost wholly the high temperature of the ground in the latter 

 period which occasions the different temjierature of the air in those oppo- 

 site seasons, I think it can scarcely be doubted that, if the soil has been 

 rendered more cold by having absorbed a large portion of water at very 

 near the freezing temperature, the weather of the spring must be, to some 

 extent, injuriously affected. But, whether it be owing to the preceding 

 or to other causes, I feel most perfectly confident that the weather in the 

 spring has been considerably less favourable to the blossoms of fruit trees, 

 and to vegetation generally, during the last thirty years, than it was in the 

 preceding period of the same duration ; and I shall in conclusion adduce 

 one fact, the evidence of which I think cannot easily be controverted. 

 The Herefordshire farmers formerly calculated upon having a full crop of 

 acorns upon the oaks, which grew dispersed over their farms, once in three 

 years ; but a good crop of acorns is now a thing of rare occurrence, upon 

 the value of which the farmer has almost wholly ceased to calculate, even 

 upon those farms which contain extensive groves of oaks. The trees, 

 nevertheless, blossom annually very freely, but no fruit is produced. 

 Many causes may be assigned for the diminished produce of orchards, and 

 of fruit trees generally; but the blossoms of the oak must be now as 

 capable of bearing cold as they were half a century ago, and their failing to 

 produce acorns can only be attributed to the agency of some external 

 cause; and I am wholly unable to conjecture any such cause except the 

 above mentioned." 



