210 mr. a. w. preston’s meteorological notes. 
It will be seen from the above that the Winter and Spring 
were colder than the average, although the deficiency was not great. 
The Summer, notwithstanding the great heat of July, did not 
result on the mean in being quite so warm as in 1899 or in 1897. 
This was due to the abnormally cold weather in August. The 
Autumn was the warmest but one of the series. Rainfall was 
slightly excessive in the Winter and Summer, slightly deficient in 
the Spring, and largely deficient in the Autumn. 
The Year. 
A rather cold and protracted Winter was followed by a later 
Spring than usual, the month of May being particularly cold, 
Owing to the fineness of the previous season the fruit trees had 
become well set with blossom buds, and the lateness of the Spring 
retarded the blooming season, and when once the fine show of 
blossom expanded it received no check. One of the finest crops of 
fruit known for many years past resulted. Wall fruit was very 
abundant, and the Plum crop in some places was so heavy that the 
markets became glutted, and the fruit almost unsaleable. Apples 
and Pears were a magnificent crop. The sudden outbursts of 
abnormal heat in April, July, September, and October, were very 
remarkable, occurring as they did in a season which gave no con- 
tinued great heat. The maxima of 75 degrees in both April and 
October were almost as notable as the outburst in July, and it is 
also worthy of remark that the heat-wave of July came almost 
exactly midway between the two shorter periods of warmth in April 
and October. While the previous Summer gave us three and a half 
months of almost continuous heat and fineness, the hot weather in 
the Summer of 1900 lasted but three weeks, during which there 
were warmer days than during all the previous long and protracted 
Summer. The sudden change to cold and wet with the advent 
of August, just as harvest was commencing, was a most 
unpleasant and unlooked for sequel. The season was very mild to 
the end of the year, with much humidity, no snow, and but little 
frost. There was a great prevalence of thunderstorms during the 
Summer, some of them being unusually severe. While the rainfall 
of the year was in close agreement with the average, the number 
of days on which rain fell was greater than for many years past. 
