EARLY SPRING IN MASSACHUSETTS. 209 
however, to get a new impetus after the first 
spring. 
March 22, 1860. Some of the phenomena of 
an average March are increasing warmth, melt¬ 
ing the snow and ice, and gradually the frost 
in the ground; cold and blustering weather, 
with high, commonly northwest, winds for many 
days together; misty and other rains taking out 
frosts, whitenings of snow, and winter often back 
again, both its cold and snow ; bare ground and 
open waters, and more or less of a freshet; 
some calm and pleasant days reminding us of 
summer, with a blue haze or a thicker mist over 
the woods at last , in which, perchance, we take 
off our coats a while, and sit without a fire; the 
ways getting settled, and some greenness ap¬ 
pearing on south banks ; April-like rains after 
the frost is chiefly out; plowing and planting 
of peas, etc., just beginning, and the old leaves 
getting dry in the woods. 
March 22, 1861. A driving northeast snow¬ 
storm yesterday and last night, and to-day the 
drifts are high over the fences, and the trains 
stopped. The Boston train due at 8J A. M. did 
not reach here till 5 this P. M. One side of all 
the houses this morning was one color, i . 0 ., 
white, with the moist snow plastered over them 
so that you could not tell whether they had 
blinds or not. 
14 
