19(5 
Our Climate and oitr Wlieat-Crops. 
by an ordinary 5-inch funnel-gauge, which had been in use 
some time previously. 
The amount of the rainfall passing through 20 inches, 
40 inches, and 60 inches of soil and subsoil, in their natural 
state of consolidation, has also been determined for a number of 
years ; and the drainage waters so collected have frequently been 
analysed. These " drain-gauges,^^ also each of one-thousandth 
of an acre area, were constructed by digging down, and under- 
mining the soil, putting iron plates drilled with holes underneath, 
and then building round the square of soil in brick and cement. 
Reference to the amounts of water passing through these drain- 
gauges will be made further on. 
The following Table (VII.) shows the rainfall in inches, in- 
each of the twelve months from October 1878 to September 1879 
inclusive, as measured by both the large and the small rain-gauge 
above referred to. It also shows the rainfall recorded, for the 
same period, at four stations which may be said roughly to be 
north, south, east, and west of Rothamsted ; namely, Bedford, 
Blackheath, Cambridge, and Oxford. For each place the number 
of days in each month when 0*01 inch, or more, fell, is also 
given. 
It will be observed that the registries of the large and the small 
gauge at Rothamsted do not agree very closely during the indi- 
vidual winter months. This is chiefly accounted for by the 
accumulation or drifting of snow in the large gauge, and 
perhaps some loss of snow in the small gauge. During the 
other months the large gauge generally registers slightly more 
than the small ; in those cases chiefly owing to measurable 
quantities of mist, fog, hoar-frost, &c., being frequently con- 
densed on its large surface when none was collected in the 
small gauge, or the quantities were too small for measurement. 
But the remarkable fact brought out by the Table is, that 
both the amount of rain, and the number of days on which 
0"01 inch, or more, fell, were greater, and in some cases much 
greater, at Rothamsted than at either of the other stations ; and 
the excess was the most marked in the summer months. Taking 
the whole twelve months, and adopting the mean of the two 
Rothamsted measurements, the fall was 8'38 inches more than 
at Bedford, 6"73 more than at Blackheath, 6 "12 more than at 
Cambridge, and 7'18 more than at Oxford. 
The actual amount of fall is not only very large, but it is in 
excess compared with the average in almost every month, and 
in the summer months especially very greatly so. Out of the 
5)2 days of May, June, and July, more than O'Ol fell at Roth- 
amsted on 65, leaving only 27 days without any rain, or with 
less than that amount ; and, among the other places quoted^ 
