the time ; towards the end, however, the wind got to the N.W. and the 

 days were warmer, though the nights were still cold. It was rightly 

 called an " Arctic Spring," and its effect was intensified by following so 

 wet a winter ; the mean temperature of each month was much below 

 the average : — 



1916-1917 



Average for 35 years 



The low average was not the result of a few specially severe spells 

 but of persistent cold weather. Until the last ten days of April there 

 had only been four occasions since the beginning of the year when the 

 maximum air temperature rose above 50 °F. 



The last ten days of April were warmer, and we were able to complete 

 the barley sowing. May opened with glorious sunshine ; rarely 

 can the advent of warm weather have been more welcome. But even 

 this was not wholly satisfactory ; the nights remained cold, and there 

 was only one shower of rain, which might have done great good had it 

 been warmer, but unfortunately it was cold and in consequence the 

 grass was not able to start growing. On the other hand the dry weather 

 enabled us to prepare an excellent tilth for the mangolds and to get 

 the potatoes in well, so that these two crops started under very favour- 

 able conditions. 



The drought continued throughout June, being broken only at the 

 end, when there was a heavy storm ; the grass made very poor growth 

 and the hay crop was poor. There was some distinctly hot weather, 

 but on the whole the temperature and sunshine were not above the 

 average. July was not a good month ; there was a great deal of rain 

 and on the 29th and 30th a very heavy storm. 



This was very unfortunate, for it came just as we were about to 

 begin harvesting, and it was followed by five days of heavy rain in 

 early August, which beat the oat crop down flat and made our task 

 very difficult. Misfortune dogged our footsteps throughout the whole 

 of the harvest ; on two occasions when corn was ready for carting 

 heavy rain fell and the sheaves had to be left and turned. The rainfall 

 for the month was even greater than in July and far in excess of the 

 average. The figures were : — 



1 91 7. Average for 60 years. 



July . 4-2 2.5 



August . 6.0 2.7 



This greatly protracted the harvest and made it very costly. 

 Barley carting was only finished on September 22nd and the wheat was 

 not all in till October. The work had to be done by old men and 

 children. The straw was brittle and much of the barley had kinked 

 badly at the neck ; the result was that many heads broke off and a 

 great deal of the corn never came in at all. A certain amount of 

 gleaning was attempted, but owing to shortage of labour it had to be 

 abandoned. 



As a set off against the bad corn and hay harvests the potatoes and 

 roots did splendidly. And although the hay crop had been short the 



