289 
THE WEATHER DURING THE 
AGRICULTURAL YEAR, 1906-1907. 
An autumn in which more than half the country experienced 
a decided excess of rain, followed by a cold, changeable winter, 
formed a rather inauspicious beginning to the agricultural 
season of 1906-1907. The spring was, however, more favour- 
able, a large amount of sunshine in the earlier part of the 
season being succeeded by copious rains, accompanied by 
a temperature of sufficient height to enable the crops to 
'recover from the somewhat backward state in which they had 
hitherto been found. Sharp night frosts in May played havoc 
with some of the fruit blossoms, but did little or no harm to 
the cereal crops. The cool, changeable weather of the summer 
was happily accompanied by no great excess of rain, but with so 
marked an absence of genial sunshine and warmth it is rather 
surprising that the progress of vegetation should have been 
as steady as in some more favourable seasons. A late harvest 
is usually a catchy one, but in 1907 the conditions began to 
improve just at a time when dry weather was needed, so that 
field work proceeded with but little interruption. The fine, 
dry weather of September fnade, in fact, substantial amends for 
the inclemency of the summer season, and was accompanied 
in many districts by temperatures in excess of those experienced 
at any other time in the year. 
The Winter of 1906-1907. 
The winter of 1906-1907 was of an extremely changeable 
character, long stretches of cold inclement weather being 
interspersed with shorter periods in which the thermometer 
rose considerably above the average. Owing to the predomi- 
nance of low temperatures the mean values for the entire 
winter were generally below the normal, the deficiency of 
warmth being greatest over eastern and southern England. 
The warmest weather occurred at the beginning of December" 
and the end of February, on each of which occasions the 
thermometer in the shade rose to 55° and upwards in several 
parts of the country. During another spell of warmth in the 
second week of January equally high readings were recorded 
in a few isolated places. 
The sharpest frosts occurred respectively at the end of 
December, and at the end of January and the beginning of 
February. On the former occasion the cold weather came 
with a very strong wind which swept down from the north- 
westward or northward just after Christmas, the polar current 
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