Camb. [Cambridge] Boston. Concord
Ther [Thermometer] Monday, April 16, 1917 Wea [Weather]
First Hylas. Fine        
Clear & cool with light westerly wind.
No frost last night.
  First Crocuses - a dozen or more - in
bloom at Concord.
  First Hylas peeping at Concord -
five or six of them, afar off to W. [west] of house
at 7.30 P.M. 
Garden birds - Cambridge. A Flicker shouting,
2 Robins on lawn; a Jay screaming;
2 or 3 House Sparrows.
Farm birds - Concord. 30+ Juncos in
orchard; Partridge flushed (Birch Field);
cock Pheasant crowing in Berry Pas. [Berry Pasture], hen
flushed in Ritchie field.
  To City Hall at 9 A.M. Licensed dogs.
Tried to see Assessors but they were away.
Back to Harvard Sq. Depos. [Deposited] $200 at Chas. R.T. Co. [Charles River Trust Co.]
Got ticket Harvard Coop. Thence to Boston
office. Bought a lot of garden seeds at
Fottler F. & L's [Fottler, Fiske, Rawson Co.]. Store crowded with purchasers.
Lunched at Marston's. Took 2.40 train to
Concord. Gilbert met me at station. S.O.
Dexter [Smith Owen Dexter] there, also. Reached Farm at 3.40.
Walked to Ritchie place & Birch Field.
Burbank ploughing in one carload of
manure. The other not spread yet.

Concord.
Ther [Thermometer] Tuesday, April 17, 1917 Wea [Weather]
58 [degrees] max. [maximum] Backward spring. Perfect.
  Brilliantly clear with light, cool,
variable winds mostly northerly.
Grass still only faintly green even in our
sheltered dooryard. Hepaticas in bloom
"Pussies" on willow at Ritchie place covered
with rich golden stamens & very handsome.
In most respects the present spring is
very like that of last year, advancing
slowly but steadily yet much more backward
thus far than average seasons because of
absence of any really warm days & uniform
presence of cool nights. Birds as well as
vegetation are thereby retarded. Some of
the earlier migrants, as Fox Sparrows &
Juncos seem to have mostly passed on northward.
The mid-April ones are nearly all late or
not here yet at all. Very few birds of any
kind in evidence to-day & these mostly
silent. A Bluebird & a Chickadee only
ones in full song. 2 silent Fox Sparrows.
  Feeling a bit used up by recent trip to
city I spent most of day indoors. Walked
to Birch Field with "Timmy" in A.M. &
helped uncover strawberry bed in P.M. 
  Frank Mason's house & barn (up our road)
burned to ground early this morning.