LETTER LXIII 



TO THE SAME 



As the effects of heat are seldom very remarkable in the 

 northerly climate of England, where the summers are often 

 so defective in warmth and sun-shine as not to ripen 

 the fruits of the earth so well as might be wished, I shall 

 be more concise in my account of the severity of a summer 

 season, and so make a little amends for the prolix account 

 of the degrees of cold, and the inconveniences that we 

 suffered from some late rigorous winters. 



The summers of 1781 and 1783 were unusually hot 

 and dry ; to them therefore I shall turn back in my 

 journals, without recurring to any more distant period. 

 In the former of these years my peach and nectarine-trees 

 suffered so much from the heat that the rind on the 

 bodies was scalded and came off ; since which the trees 

 have been in a decaying state. This may prove a hint to 

 assiduous gardeners to fence and shelter their wall-trees 

 with mats or boards, as they may easily do, because such 

 annoyance is seldom of long continuance. During that 

 summer also, I observed that my apples were coddled, as 

 it were, on the trees ; so that they had no quickness of 

 flavour, and would not keep in the winter. This circum- 

 stance put me in mind of what I have heard travellers 

 assert, that they never ate a good apple or apricot in the 

 south of Europe, where the heats were so great as to 

 render the juices vapid and insipid. 



The great pests of a garden are wasps, which destroy 

 all the finer fruits just as they are coming into perfection. 



In 1781 we had none ; in 1783 there were myriads ; which 



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