99 
E. MAWLEY—PHENOLOGICAL PHENOMENA 
ploughed before Christmas. Moreover, those farmers who took 
advantage of the fine weather in February were able to sow their 
beans and peas and also their spring corn under specially favourable 
conditions and when the ground was in an excellent state to receive 
them. The mild weather also favoured the pastures, which during 
a great part of the Winter remained fresh and green; and as the 
yield of hay, turnips, and mangolds in the previous year had been 
abundant, there was never any lack of fodder for the sheep and 
cattle. 
This was an equally propitious season for cultivating the soil in 
the garden, while the mild weather allowed the winter supply of 
green vegetables, which has seldom been so good, to remain un¬ 
injured by frost. In the flower-garden there were fewer flowers 
to be seen in the early part of the Winter than has been the case 
in recent years, but this is accounted for by the spell of cold 
weather which set in rather suddenly at the beginning of December. 
This brief touch of frost was, however, welcome, as it gave a much 
needed check to the growth of fruit-trees, roses, and other hard- 
wooded plants. 
At Berkhamsted the winter aconite first showed an open blossom 
on January 5th, which is sixteen days earlier than its average date 
in the previous fourteen years and earlier than in any of those 
years. A day later the same plant was noted as first in flower 
at Watford. 
The first fertile flowers appeared on the hazel five days later 
than their average date in the previous twenty<-seven years. The 
song-thrush was first heard after the beginning of the year twelve 
days in advance of its mean date, while the honey-bee was first seen 
to visit flowers nine days behind its usual time. 
The Spuing. 
Taken as a whole, this was a rather warm, exceptionally wet, 
and very dull quarter. It is, however, necessary to examine it 
a little more closely in order to form something like an accurate 
estimate of its true character. For instance, March proved 
remarkably warm throughout and at the same time singularly wet, 
with rather more than the usual amount of sunshine. April, on 
the other hand, was exceptionally cold, with cloudy skies, and an 
average rainfall. In May the temperature and rainfall were both 
about seasonable, while the record of sunshine proved very scanty. 
The weather in March was so extremely wet that it was only 
during the drier intervals in the middle of the month that any 
sowing was possible. After the first week in April, however, the 
condition of the land improved, and during the next fortnight 
a good deal of spring corn was got in. In the second half of May 
the land was again in fairly good tilth, which gave an opportunity 
for the arrears of corn, clover, and mangold sowing to be made up, 
and for the planting of potatoes and the preparation of the ground 
for turnips and swedes to be taken in hand. It is seldom that the 
spring sowing-time extends over so long a period as it did in 1903, 
