398 
MESSRS. J. B. LAWES AND J. H. GILBERT ON THE RESULTS OF 
fluctuations of temperature, some very warm, and some very cold weather, and nume¬ 
rous gales. The first three months of 1870, again, were characterised by frequent 
alternations of warm and very cold weather, the colder periods prevailing, and being 
sometimes very severe ; snow was frequent, but the total fall was deficient in January, 
and hut little above the average in February and March. Vegetation generally was 
very backward, and grass land was very brown and bare. April, May, and June, the 
three months of most active accumulation and growth, were largely deficient in rain; 
and with the exception of about a fortnight at the end of April and the beginning of 
May, when the weather was cold and cloudy, the whole period was unusually warm 
and sunny; the three months together being not only much warmer than the average, 
but very unusually deficient in rain. The day temperatures especially were high, 
though the night temperatures were in April and May low; and throughout the three 
months the degree of humidity of the atmosphere was considerably below the average. 
Thus, after an autumn very deficient in rain, and fluctuating as to temperature, a 
winter and early spring very stormy, very fluctuating as to temperature, in fact very 
inclement, and vegetation consequently very backward to start with, the three months 
of most active above-ground growth were very unusually dry, very unusually hot in 
the days, and frequently colder than the average in the nights. It was under these 
conditions that the smallest crop of the 20 years was obtained. 
Upon the whole, then, the registered meteorological conditions of the season of 
least productiveness more obviously account for the deficient crop, than do those of the 
previous season account for its excessive yield. In the case of the very defective crop 
of 1870, the conditions previous to the jDeriod of active growth were strikingly un¬ 
favourable for the herbage ; and the period of active growth was itself strikingly 
adverse, both in its extreme dryness, and in its coincident high day and low night 
temperatures. In the case of the excessive, but succulent and immature growth of 
1869, the climatic conditions previous to the period of most active vegetation were 
obviously very favourable ; but those of the period of active above-ground growth 
itself were such as would only conduce to great luxuriance provided there were an 
already forward condition of the herbage. 
It may be well to notice briefly, the characters of the seasons, and of the produce, 
of 1868 and 1874 ; the former perhaps the second in order of productiveness, and the 
latter the second in order of unproductiveness. The following table (XXXI.) sum¬ 
marises, in the same form as before, the results relating to the produce of these two 
seasons ; and Table XXXII. summarises the actual and comparative characters of the 
seasons themselves, also in the same form as before. 
