J^otes on the Season. 363 
NOTES ON THE SEASON. 
BY W. BACON. 
In our last notice of the season, we closed our remarks with 
April, and in speaking of that month, inquired what had become 
of our April showers, those beautiful features which so distinctly 
marked the opening spring in bygone years, when in our juvenile 
wanderings we so often had our sky over-spread with clouds 
almost in a moment, and" took a good ducking before we could 
reach the shelter of the nearest projecting rock, or perchance the 
wide spreading branches of a friendly evergreen, which alone, 
of all the trees of the wood, at that early season offered to screen 
us from the unsought libations which came so uncalled for, to 
throw sadness over our joys, and a wet jacket around our persons. 
But there was a mellow sunshine following so close upon those 
showers, that their influence upon our feelings and our garments 
were forgotten, almost as soon as realized, and we were ready for 
another hearty dash of rain, and another interlude of revivifying 
influence from the king of day. But where are those beautiful 
showers that called the early blossoms so early from their beds, 
and swelled the rippling streams that skipped so joyously from 
rock to rock all day long, gone now? Surely their repetition 
has not been so frequent in these latter days, as they were in 
olden time. 
The May of 1848, however, bore a close resemblance in this 
respect to our good, old fashioned Aprils. Clouds were frequently 
flitting across the atmosphere, dispensing their influence and 
passing away, so that the month possessed all the moisture neces- 
sary to advance vegetation in a healthful growth; yet the earth 
was seldom so saturated as to cau^p delay in the labors of the 
season. The advance of vegetation through the month, was 
rapid, most so, however, in grass and the grains, while forest and 
fruit trees were tardy in throwing out the habiliments of summer. 
Pear, which blossoms liberally, were in bloom the 15th; apples, 
the 20th; cherries gave few blossoms; plums, none; peaches, 
none. The wood of the latter was worse killed in the winter, 
than for many previous seasons. The plum crop was probably 
ruined by the warm weather in December, during which the buds 
started so much, as to make them an easy prey to the severities of 
cold which followed. Though we had many cool da-ys and nights 
in May, there was no frost until the last night of the month, 
when the groimd in some places was slightly frozen, and in a 
few instances ide formed, of the thickness of window glass. It 
