300 
REMARKS ON THE WEATHER. 
perhaps, accused of neglect, while the second is bepraised for what 
is erroneously deemed superior management. The fact is, the 
advantages of situation are not always apparent to the eye; nor are 
all plants equally affected by the state of the weather. Deep-root¬ 
ing plants, as the beet and others having spindle-shaped roots, are 
scarcely checked by the present dry weather, while the fibrous or 
shallow-rooting herbs are burnt up. We visited a garden the other 
day in which we were struck with the verdant and vigorous appear¬ 
ance of the trees, both on the walls of the garden (which were also 
covered with fine fruit) and in the pleasure-ground, while every shallow¬ 
rooting vegetable and flowering plant on the surface were diminutive, 
and only kept active by the watering-pot. The surface was everywhere 
cracked, and rent by wide fissures, and presented a most barren-looking 
aspect. “■ What is your subsoil here?” was a natural question. “A 
w fine moist bed of clay,” was the answer, and which sufficiently accounted 
for the difference in condition of the trees and herbs. On the following 
day we witnessed the effects of the drought on another highly orna¬ 
mented place, on which every tree and herb were languishing. Some 
of the trees, especially where they stand thickly together, have already 
lost their leaves, and many, elm, ash, and poplar, will hardly recover. 
Here the subsoil is a bed of gravel. The nearness or distance of the 
land-springs from the surface also very much affects the growth of 
vegetation; and the great advantage of trenching ground for any kind 
of crop, has been particularly manifest this summer. Opening the 
ground to allow the escape or ascent of moist vapour from below, is of 
the utmost benefit to the thirsty and parched plants on the surface. 
Orchard fruit are rather plentiful, but remarkably small in conse¬ 
quence of their numbers and dry weather together. The potato crops 
in the fields, which are not yet quite ripe, will be in some jeopardy 
should we have a sudden fall of rain, and which, if not immediately 
raised, will take a second growth, the first-formed tubers producing 
others, neither of which will answer the purpose of the grower. 
Although the drought has been generally prevalent, thunder-storms, 
a usual consequence, have happened in some places, and which have 
been partially beneficial. The dry season will probably be broken up 
by a series of thunder-storms; and already there are some signs of this 
being about to take place, the air being at present loaded with heavy 
masses of promising clouds. 
August 23rd, 1835. 
