100 
REMARKS ON THE WEATHER. 
REMARKS ON THE WEATHER. 
According to the old saying, March u came in like a lion; 5 ’ but 
whether it will fc go out like a lamb,” does not yet appear. At the 
beginning, there was much snow in the western counties, and every¬ 
where a rather unusual fall of rain. The equinoctial gales, which 
commonly occur between the eighteenth and twenty-fourth days of 
the month, set in as early as the eleventh, and continued with con- 
siderable violence for several days afterward. Meteorologists consider 
that from tables formed from actual observations of many years, and 
with the best instruments, the mean evaporation during the month 
exceeds the mean quantity of rain which falls by forty-eight tenths of 
an inch; but, as far as we have yet experienced, the fall of rain will 
greatly exceed the amount of evaporation. This result is not con¬ 
sidered favourable to vegetation generally, more especially to the crops 
of the fields. Hence another old saying, that t<r a peck of March dust 
is worth a king’s ransom because, from the long-continued cold and 
moisture of winter, plants become dormant or languid, and, of course, 
are rapidly recovered, and put into healthy action, by the drying winds 
and increasing temperature of the first month of spring. 
Almond trees about London were half blown on the eighteenth, 
and on the nineteenth and twentieth the air was so mild as to bring 
forth the female wasps to find a place to breed in, and the brim¬ 
stone and peacock butterflies in search of food. Since then the air 
has been colder, with frequent showers of rain or sleet, which keeps 
everything in gardens backward. There have been, however, no serious 
night-frosts lately; and while the weather continues so changeable, 
they are not so likely to occur, though they should always be dreaded, 
and averted, if possible, by the gardener. 
March 'Ihth , 1836. 
