NATURAL PERIODIC PHENOMENA. 165 
in early August. The rest of the year was stormy and wet, with 
- little snow or frost. I will, as before, give the character of the 
chief crops. 
Wheat, though heavy in the quantity of straw, was short in 
the ear and very ill kerned, and consequently the yield proved far ~ 
below the average. In several places where the crop was valued 
on change of tenant, the result on thrashing was from one to three 
Cornish bushels per acre below the estimated quantity. The crop 
on the whole was well saved. 
Barley. Crop an average one, but here and there badly stained, 
thereby unfitting it for malting purposes. 
Oats. Crop good and even above an average in some places; 
in others, from rust and other causes, very deficient. On the 
whole there was an average yield. 
Hay. Crop abundant, much above the average, but a large 
part was wetted and saved in bad condition. 
Grass was very plentiful, and hence keep for cattle was abundant 
throughout the year. 
Turnips and Mangolds. Crop good. 
Potatoes. The inscrutable disease began earlier, and was more 
destructive to the general crop, than in any year since its com- 
mencement in 1845. The yield was scanty, and bad in quality ; 
so diseased in many places that they were scarcely worth digging, 
Fruit. The frosts and hail-showers in May were very destructive 
to fruit of all description; orchards of two or three acres in extent 
not yielding a bushel of apples. 
Birds. It is worth recording the comparative abundance or 
rarity of our migratory birds; and this subject must be looked at 
by the light of the previous year or years. The Corncrake and 
Cuckoo were scarce, and the Woodcock and Snipe remarkably so, 
January 7. Primrose (Primula vulgaris), fl. 
18. Snow-drop (Galanthus nivalis), fi. 
23. Hazel, (Corylus Avellana), fi. 
28. Gooseberry, (Ribes Grossularia), ji. 
February 4. Aurora Borealis began soon after sunset and lasted 
until about half-past eight, p.m., and was brilliant, 
a cloudy sky notwithstanding. 
H 2 
