382 ' REPORT OF THE FOREST, FISH AND GAME COMMISSIONER. 



inches, was unusual and the greatest on record for May. Killing frosts 

 were general as late as May 28th. 



June, 1907. 



New York. Unseasonable temperatures prevailed during first half 

 of the month, the nights being unusually cold, and killing frosts occurred. 

 There was much cloudiness during the first part of the month. 



New England. The unseasonably cold weather that prevailed in 

 New England during the month of May continued through the first fifteen 

 days of June. The maximum temperatures were much below ths normal. 



New Jersey. The abnormally cool weather continued through the 

 first part of June. The mean temperature up to the 14th inclusive being 

 8° below normal. 



Pennsylvania. The coolest June in eighteen years. 



Michigan. The unusual and unseasonably cool weather which pre- 

 vailed throughout the State from the 1st of April did not terminate until 

 nearly the middle of June. The first eight days were decidedly cooler 

 than normal and a continuation of the previous sixty days of abnormal 

 coolness. 



4. The theory advanced in the following letter that the extreme dry- 

 ness of midsummer was responsible for the scarcity of ruffed grouse has 

 but little data to support it in view of the fact that it was not so extremely 

 dry in every locality, while the grouse scarcity was universal. 



" Plenty of evidence is at hand that the chicks were hatched success- 

 fully. The mystery is what became of them afterward. Almost entire 

 lack of water is probably the solution. * * * Last summer brooks 

 and swamps which he (George L. Myer-, of Millis, Mass.) never saw dry 

 before, were many weeks without water, and the same conditions prevailed 

 in other sections of the State." — (Hackle, Boston, Mass., in Forest and 

 Stream, November 23, 1907.) 



August was an unusually dry month. The average amount of rain- 

 fall in the State of New York was only 1 . 53 inches and the lowest on record 

 since the Climatological Service was established, but the streams and 

 swamps did not become dry in all localities. The grouse were just as scarce 



