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broke down the newly turned furrows, everything was in favour 

 of winter sowing. December was fairly mild ; the first part of 

 the month was dry but the second half was very wet, there being 

 nearly 3in. of rain during this period. This precipitation, although 

 unwelcome at the time, added appreciably to the stores of under- 

 ground water, which had been seriously depleted by the drought 

 of 1921, and not restored by the rainfall of 1922. Winter corn 

 looked well and the young clover still maintained a satisfactory 

 plant. January 1923 was dry, only 1.50 in. of rain being regis- 

 tered against an average of 2.41in. for this month. The sunshine 

 and mean air temperature were both above the average, but the 

 ground temperatures were not, and seventeen ground frosts were 

 experienced in this month. 



A change came in February. There was more than double 

 the normal rainfall and the month was practically lost as far as 

 field work and threshing was concerned. The wet spell con- 

 tinued into March, and not until its last few days could work 

 on the land be resumed. The weather had not been unduly 

 cold ; the mean air temperature was, in fact, above the average 

 both for February and March. Wheat and oats had made 

 no progress in the sodden conditions of the two months, but 

 when the wafer got away, they tillered out rapidly. A dry 

 and dull April saw most of the spring sowings made under 

 favourable conditions, a warm spell at the end of the month 

 giving the barley a good start. May was drier than usual, but 

 cold sunless weather set in with occasional frosts. The barley 

 kept going better than might have been expected, but clover 

 coming into bloom was severely checked. June was a month of 

 warm droughty weather although actually duller than either 

 April or May — the hours of bright sunshine being no less than 

 86 below the monthly average. The deep rooting crops came on 

 fairly well, but barley gave signs of needing rain before the 

 month was out. For each of the five months, February-June 

 inclusive, there had been a deficiency of sunshine which amounted 

 on the average to no less than 1-J hours per day. Naturally 

 the soil temperature was lower than usual, and although the 

 rainfall had not been high, the evaporation was reduced because 

 of the lack of sunshine, and this led to a slightly greater perco- 

 lation ol water through the 60in. gauge. Warmer and much 

 brighter weather came in July, the nights being for the first 

 time warm. The striking feature of the month was the exceed- 

 ingly heavy thunder showers on the night of the 9th, which, 

 with the falls occurring on the following day, brought down 

 2\ ins. of rain. Fortunately, our corn was not lodged, although 

 elsewhere heavy crops of oats were badly laid over a wide area 

 in the track of the storm. Hay was got in under good conditions 

 and crops were satisfactory : the clover hay averaged 28 cwts. 

 per acre over the farm and meadow hay yielded 35 cwts. on the 

 manured land of Great Field. August was the best month of 

 the year. The daily average of 11 hours of sunshine for the 

 first fortnight caused some wilting of the shallow rooted crops, 

 but refreshing rains came later in the month. The harvest 

 weather was perfect for oats and wheat, but a little rain fell 



