38 THE TROPICAL AGEICULTURIST. [July 1, 1900. 
the biggest fool in the viUage is always the 
weather prophet, and there may be some 
truth in this : for to iirophesy a year in ad- 
vance what the weather is to be is a bold 
undertaking, indeed, especially in a country 
like Scotland that has such a lot of climates 
and which all keep so close together, there 
being sometimes as many as five varieties in 
one day. There ai'e too many orange-peels, 
so to speak, on the pathway to success, tor 
one to prove a successful prophet in a country 
of such climatic variety. We have our Zadkiel, 
Raphael and Falb annually prophesying for 
all they are worth with regard to the weather 
and proving themselves false prophets all 
along the line, so that farmers have long 
since lost all confidence in tiiem. I have 
always had a weakness for checking off the 
weather in whatever part of the world I 
happened to be living, and since coming here 
I have made a study of the deplorably erratic 
climate of this district. Mine, however, is 
not a policy uf prophecy, but of average, and 
after having carefully noted the various 
changes for twelve years, I proceeded to strike 
an average taking into consideration the 
phases of the moon and other astronomical 
particulars ; and with this data to go upon, 
1 tried to forecast the weather of the coming 
year. Every year adds some more inform- 
ation to my stock of knowledge, and so I 
find that I can now hit oft' a wonderftiUy 
accurate forecast. Stimulated by success I 
once published in a local weekly, an account 
of the probable weather to be endured by 
the residents of the district in the coming 
year, and so remarkable were the results that 
I might without fear h^ve set myself up as 
a prophet of the first degree. I will give 
two examples out of many scores, just 
to show my readers the superior claims of 
average over prophecy. 
THE DISTRICT rLOTJGIIING MATCH 
was held in one of my fields, and 
meeting the secretary one day, shortly before 
the event, I asked him why he had adver- 
tised the match for the 18th of December, 
when had he taken, the trouble to keep 
a copy of the paper in which my 
forecast had been piiblished, he would 
have seen that the 18th of December is 
ahcays a rainy day in Buchan. He laughed 
at my remark, but his mirth was changed to 
gloom when, although we had had lovely open 
weather up to the night of the 17th, the rain 
then began, and it poxTred like a S.-W. mon- 
soon all through the 18th, after which it 
cleared up for another spell of fine weather. 
Of course, the match was a failure, only the 
half of those who had entered having put in an 
appearance. On another occasion, the steam 
mill had arrived— in a gale of wind— to thrash 
my crop, andmy grieve suggested that we might 
put off the thrashing for a day in hoj^es that 
the wind might fall. I told him, however, 
that we had better not delay, because in my 
forecast I had it entered that there would be 
"heavy snow" that evening. He smiled as 
he pointed to the bright, cloudless sky, but 
went away and got the mill started to work 
At o'clock that evening there were three 
inches of snow all over the country and I did 
not ^^t another chance to thrash for a montli 
and would have been badly oif for straw to 
feed my stock, had I not insisted on thrashing 
when I did. Need 1 say that my men have 
the utmost belief in my forecast now, and I 
have been saved from a good many climatic 
annoyances by my own belief in it. And, let 
me add, I believe i hat anyone could make as 
iiseful a forecast for the district lie lives in, 
if he would only take the trouble to check off 
the weather for a considerable number of 
years before striking the average. 
BOUND TO THE FRONT. 
The only function of importance that has 
occurred in our rural district since I last wrote, 
has been the " send off " to a member of 
our village rifle corps who has volunteered for 
the front ami who was presented by his 
brother citizen soldiers with a pipe and some 
tobacco, to say nothing of a real silver match- 
box. A deputation from the (Company went 
to the county town to make the purchase in 
preference to patronising tiie local tol/acco- 
nist, at whose shop the choice of pipes was 
considered to be somewhat limited ; and in 
presenting the testimonial, the commanding 
officer hoped that their gallant brother in 
arms would never disgrace the colours of the 
regiment in which he was to serve. He hoped 
also that their comrade, as he lay smoking liis 
pipe behind some kopje, or spreading himself 
across the veldt in search of the enemy, 
would sometimes call to mind those he had 
left behind, struggling to make themselves 
proficient in the hands of the sergeant-in- 
structor ; and with his blessing and these few 
articles of considerable intrinsic value, he 
wished his gallant private a pleasant voyage, 
a glorious round of fighting and that he 
might come back, safe and sound, to marry 
the girl who had reached his heart. Tre- 
mendous applause followed and everyone 
began talking abovit Majuba Hill, Spionkop, 
Magersfontein and other battles which re- 
quired to be explained away. In this age of 
presentations, if one was to limit his acquaint- 
ance to men who had not for some reason or 
other been presented with a Waterbury watch 
or a pipe and tobacco, he would have to be 
contented with a very small circle of friends. 
So common has the habit become and so 
monotonous the deadly uniformity of the gifts, 
that in oxir district, at least, men who wear 
watches or smoke pipes of their own buy- 
ing are beginning to feel themselves tres 
distingiL6s. 
■ — — ♦ 
THE ROYAL PALM, 
Our illustration for which we are indebted to 
Mr. H F Macmillan, shows the avenue of noble 
Pal ms in the Peradeniya ISotanic Garden, 
Ceylon, constituted by Oreodoxa regia. The 
magnificent gardens ab Peradgniya, have been 
presided over by such men as Gardner, Thwaites 
and Trimen, all old friends of the Gardners' 
Clironiclc, and of its editors, and are now 
under the direction of Mr. Willis, who 
is endeavouring with success to rival the 
Buitenzorg Botanical Institute under the direc- 
tion of Prof. Trsub. We hope shortly to pub- 
lish other illustrations of this noble tropical 
garden.— Garc^M&rs' Chronicle, May 12. [The il- 
lustration is beautifully clear and distinct,—' 
Ed. T.A] 
