CHAPTER XI 



METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS (Reports, I, 175; 



II, 238) * 



WITH a view to throwing some light on the conditions causing 

 a more serious incidence of radiation- frosts in the lower than in 

 the higher portions of the ground, meteorological observations at 

 the Woburn Farm were duplicated, one station being situated 

 at the highest point in the ground, marked H on the plan, given on 

 p. 82, and the other at the lowest, L. This latter is 15*35 f ee t 

 lower than H, and is 65 feet distant from the brook, in which 

 the average water level is about 4 feet below the level of the 

 field. The height of various other parts of the ground, in feet 

 below H, are given by the numbers enclosed in circles. A solar 

 radiation thermometer is situated at Z, and the rain gauge at 

 R; the other lettering on the plan, A, B, etc., refer to the points 

 where the soil was sampled for analysis. 



The meteorological observations for twenty years have been 

 dealt with. These have been worked up by Mr. C. A. Bracey, 

 of the Meteorological Office, and it will be sufficient here to give 

 a summary only of the results. In their bearing on horticultural 

 problems it was considered advisable not to follow the ordinary 

 division of the year into four equal portions, but to take the 

 four months, May to August, as representing the season of 

 activity, or summer (Su.), and the four months, November 

 to February, the dormant season, or winter (W.), leaving the 

 other two pairs of months to represent spring and autumn (Sp., 

 Au.). The average values, for successive years, divided on this 

 principle, as well as the values for the whole twelve months 

 from May to April (12 m.), are given in Table I, those obtained at 

 the upper station only being quoted : an entry against any given 

 year, such as 1896, refers to observations from May 1895 to 

 April 1896. 



1 When these Reports were published there were records available for 

 only one year and four years, respectively ; but the conclusions to which 

 they led were, in nearly every detail, the same as those to which the 

 observations of twenty years now lead. 



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