ON THE SUPPOSED CHANGES OF THE CLIMATE OF ENGLAND. 309 



years ago, that some trees of the common laurel, which grew in a very 

 high and cold situation, and which usually lost a very large portion of 

 the annual wood, in more than one winter totally escaped all injury after 

 such wet seasons, though their annual wood did not appear more mature 

 in the end of November, than it would have been, in a warm and favour- 

 able situation and season, in the end of July ; and I thought the whole 

 of it must have inevitably perished. 



Supposing the ground to contain less water in the commencement of 

 winter, on account of the operation of the drains above-mentioned, as it 

 almost always will, and generally must do, more of the water afforded by 

 dissolving snows, and the cold rains of winter, will be necessarily absorbed 

 by it ; and in the end of February, however dry the ground may have 

 been at the winter solstice, it will almost always be found saturated with 

 water derived from those unfavourable sources ; and as the influence of 

 the sun is as powerful on the last day of February, as on the 15th day 

 of October, and as it is almost wholly the high temperature of the 

 ground in the latter period which occasions the different temperature 

 of the air in those opposite seasons, I think it can scarcely be doubted 

 that if the soil have been rendered more cold by having absorbed a larger 

 portion of water at very near the freezing temperature, the weather of 

 the spring must be, to some extent, injuriously affected. But whether 

 it be owing to the preceding or other causes, I feel most perfectly confi- 

 dent that the weather in the spring has been considerably less favourable 

 to the blossoms of fruit trees, and to vegetation generally, during the 

 last thirty years, than it was in the preceding period of the same 

 duration ; and I shall in conclusion adduce one fact, the evidence of 

 which I think cannot easily be controverted. The Herefordshire farmers 

 formerly calculated upon having a full crop of acorns upon the oaks, 

 which grew dispersed over their farms, once in three years ; but a good 

 crop of acorns is now a thing of rare occurrence, upon the value of which 

 the farmer has almost wholly ceased to calculate, even upon those farms 

 which contain extensive groves of oaks. The trees nevertheless blossom 

 annually very freely, but no fruit is produced. Many causes may be 

 assigned for the diminished produce of orchards, and of fruit trees 

 generally; but the blossoms of the oak must be now as capable of 

 bearing cold as they were half-a- century ago, and their failing to pro- 

 duce acorns can only be attributed to the agency of some external cause ; 

 and I am wholly unable to conjecture any such cause except the above- 

 mentioned. 



