48 SCIENTIFIC SURVEY OF LEICESTER AND DISTRICT 
MISCELLANEOUS PHENOMENA. 
The right-hand portion of Table VI shows the mean monthly and annual 
frequencies of days of snow, snow lying, hail, thunder and ground frost 
as observed at Belvoir Castle. A day of ‘ snow lying ’ is defined as one 
on which more than half of the country surrounding the station is covered 
with snow at the time of the morning observation. A day of ground 
frost is one on which a minimum thermometer exposed on short grass 
registers 30°4° F. or below. Similar data for other stations are given in 
the Book of Normals, Section IV. The frequency of days with snow 
has varied from 3 in 1928 to 53 in 1917, in which year there were 44 days 
of snow lying. ‘There were 39 days of snow in 1919 and 37 in 1906. 
Hail is relatively infrequent, but occurs most often in the spring months. 
Thunder, with an average frequency of 20 days a year, occurs more often 
at Belvoir Castle than at any other British station for which the data are 
available, a fact which seems to indicate that Leicestershire is in the 
region of maximum thunderstorm frequency for the British Isles. As is 
commonly the case in the Midlands and the south-eastern half of England, 
the months giving the highest frequencies of thunder are the summer 
months from May to August. 
Ground frost is frequent but not remarkably so, considerably higher 
frequencies being observed at some other inland stations. During the 
year 1932, for instance, there were 184 ground frosts at Rickmansworth 
(Herts), 132 at Sprowston (Norfolk), 131 at Chelmsford (Essex), and 
135 at Ascot (Berks), as compared with g5 at Belvoir Castle. 
VI. 
FARMING IN LEICESTERSHIRE 
BY 
THOMAS HACKING, M.Sc., 
DIRECTOR OF AGRICULTURE AND AGRICULTURAL ORGANISER FOR 
LEICESTERSHIRE. 
Rock formations—General Characteristics of County—Soils—Management of 
Grassland—Vale of Belvoir—Western Area—Melton Mowbray Area— 
Agricultural Statistics—Decline in Arable Land—Crops and Grass—Cattle— 
Sheep—Pigs—Horses—Cereals and Potatoes—Permanent Grass—Agricul- 
tural Holdings—Agricultural Workers. 
THE agriculture of a county is largely determined by its geology and 
climatological conditions. If we take a brief general survey of 
Leicestershire, we shall find the rocks fall into five broad divisions : 
(1) In the north-west rises the hilly, almost mountainous region of 
Charnwood Forest, composed of very ancient igneous and meta- 
morphic rocks. 
