Characteristics of a Sad Season. 213 



than the average total fall, though there was a considerable 

 deficiency in January. There were heavy and continuous 

 falls of rain in November and December, with great fluctua- 

 tions of temperature, some very warm, and some very cold 

 weather, and numerous gales. The first three months of 

 1870 again were marked by frequent alternations of warm 

 and very cold weather, the colder periods prevailing, and 

 being sometimes very severe. Snow was frequent, but the 

 total fall was deficient in January, and but little above the 

 average in February and March. Vegetation generally was 

 very backward, and grass land was very brown and bare. 

 April, May, and June, the three months of most active 

 accumulation and growth, were largely deficient in rain, and 

 with the exception of about a fortnight at the end of April 

 and the beginning of May, when the weather was cold and 

 cloudy, the whole period was unusually warm and sunny, the 

 three months together being not only much warmer than the 

 average, but very unusually deficient in rain. The day 

 temperatures especially were high, though the night tempera- 

 tures were, in April and May, low ; and throughout the three 

 months the degree of humidity of the atmosphere was 

 considerably below the average. 



Thus, after an autumn very deficient in rain, and fluctuating 

 as to temperature, a winter and early spring very stormy, very 

 fluctuating as to temperature, in fact very inclement, and 

 vegetation consequently very backward to start with, the 

 three months of most active above-ground growth were very 

 unusually dry, very unusually hot in the days, and frequently 

 colder than the average in the nights. It was under these 

 conditions that the smallest crop of the twenty years was 

 obtained. 



Upon the whole then, the registered meteorological condi- 

 tions of the season of least productiveness more obviously 

 account for the deficient crop, than do those of the previous 

 season account for its excessive yield. In the case of the 

 crop of 1870, the conditions previous to the period of active 



