384 PECULIARITIES OF 



cumstances, is the most extraordinary to be found 

 in our annals. The winter of 1824-5 had been 

 mild and wet; the ensuing spring dry, but with 

 keen winds and frosty mornings, which greatly 

 injured the fine blossoms that appeared on our 

 fruit-trees ; and the continued and profuse nightly 

 fall of the honey-dew was quite unusual : the 

 leaves of the oak, the cherry, and the plum, 

 were constantly smeared and dropping with this 

 clammy liquor, which, falling from the foliage on 

 the ground, blackened it as if some dark fluid had 

 been spilled upon it : the leaves of most of our 

 stone fruits curled up, covered with aphides^ and 

 became deciduous ; and their young shoots were 

 destroyed by the punctures of these insects that 

 clustered on them. This honey-dew continued to 

 fall till about the middle of July, affording an 

 abundant supply of food to multitudes of bees, 

 moths, and other insects, which swarmed about the 

 trees. We rarely begin cutting our grass before 

 the first week in July ; but in consequence of the 

 heat of June in this year, it was so drawn up, that 

 much hay was made and carried by the 20th of 

 June, which commonly is not accomplished till 

 August. Our crops on good ground were consi- 

 dered as fair, though in general the chilling season 

 of May had occasioned a deficiency ; but all our 

 clover crops and artificial grasses were harvested 

 in the finest order, producing good-sized ricks and 



