60 TILLEES OF THE GKOUND CHAP. 



consequence. In this country, and in all civilised 

 countries, there are therefore people whose business 

 it is to record day by day, month by month, and 

 year by year, the temperature, the amount of rain, 

 the dampness of the air, and so on. Each little 

 observation is in itself of very little consequence, 

 but when the observations have been carried on 

 for many years, then we really know what is the 

 climate of the country. 



In an old country like our own an exact know- 

 ledge of the climate is in some ways of less 

 importance than in a new one, for a condition 

 of balance between the cultivated plants and the 

 climate has long since been established. But it is 

 quite different in a new country. Suppose we take 

 some district in our country where the weather has 

 been observed for fifty years. It is found by com- 

 paring the results of all those years that we can 

 draw up lists of probabilities about the weather. 

 We cannot make any definite statement about any 

 one year, but we can say, for instance, in regard to 

 autumn frost the first frost is not likely to be 

 before such a date or after such a date. The 

 farmer knows then that if he does not get delicate 

 crops in before these dates he may lose them. 



Suppose now we take a new country where the 

 climate is not well known. A farmer plants a 

 delicate crop ; he finds it does well. He plants 



