196 THE ROLL OF THE SEASONS 



check from which it will not easily recover. Such 

 flocks of aphides as there were have survived the bad 

 weather. We see them on the rose bushes and else- 

 where, ready to resume operations now that warmth 

 has come in. All that we can hope is that an early 

 generation has been cut out from the usual list of nine 

 or ten. Still, that is much. We have not yet had one 

 of those swarming days when the green bugs, having 

 arrived at the dignity of wings, spring into the air, 

 and are drifted in millions to fresh pasturage. When 

 swarming day comes, may the swallow and every 

 other bird be there to guard us, with appetite multi- 

 plied by many mouths at home. It is the early 

 shower of blight on very tender leaves that we fear 

 most. The tenderest leaves were stripped off by 

 those fierce winds of early May, and perhaps those 

 that are left are of a hardihood to withstand blight. 

 A week ago we thought a great deal of the damage 

 that had been done. Truly, the wheat was a sad 

 sight when those drying winds swept the soil. But 

 now that a still, steamy May has come, the world is 

 reviving wonderfully. The plums have gone, but it 

 was April, not May, that slew them. Apples and 

 pears have been thinned, but the operation is always 

 necessary. They have not been thinned excessively, 

 the trees are unusually clean, and we think there 

 must be now a good apple and pear year. The great 

 good news is that the grass is springing. A week 

 ago the coarser grasses were luxuriant, but the tender 

 herbage that in an old meadow is as sugar to lamb- 

 kins and milch cows was slow to come. The farmer 

 looked across fields that seemed to ripple knee-deep, 

 and declared that there was no grass. He could 



