292 
E. MAWLEY-PHENOLOGICAL PHENOMENA 
continued wet, and a short period of keen frost and snow 
towards the end of January. 
When this frost came the green vegetables in the garden, 
although of unusual size, suffered very much less than they 
did under similar circumstances in the previous winter, but 
then it must be borne in mind that the frosts in that winter 
were very much more severe. 
Taking the county as a whole the first fertile flowers appeared 
on the hazel on February 15th, or sixteen days late. 
The song-thrusli was first heard after the beginning of 
January fifteen days in advance of its average time, while the 
honey-bee was first seen to visit flowers thirty-four days later 
than usual. 
The Spring. 
This was on the whole rather a warm and dry spring. There 
occurred, however, a sharp touch of frost during the second week 
in May. There was a good record of sunshine. 
After the continuous and heavy rainfall in February a change 
to drier conditions in March was warmly welcomed on the farms. 
It was not, however, until towards the end of the latter month 
that any considerable progress was made in the preparation of 
the ground for the reception of spring corn, even on light lands, 
owing to its saturated condition. On heavy lands it was in 
many instances very difficult to obtain anything like a satisfactory 
seed-bed, for, in the first instance, the soil was waterlogged, and 
then when the drier weather arrived it became, on the other 
hand, dry and caked on the surface, and consequently too hard 
to work satisfactorily. The frequent showers which followed in 
the middle of April, however, served to soften the surface and 
rendered further progress possible. In fact, taking the plieno- 
logical year as a whole, it must be regarded as having been 
throughout much more favourable for the light land than the 
heavy land farmer. In the middle of May there occurred 
a remarkable change from very cold to very warm weather, 
which, as the ground was moist at the time, greatly benefited 
both the autumn and spring-sown corn, and also the grass. 
As was the case on the farms, seeds germinated slowly in the 
gardens, and in some cases, owing to the saturated state of the 
soil, had to be resown. The fruit-trees as a rule blossomed 
fairly well, but failed to set their fruit. This may have been 
partly due to the cold winds prevailing at the time the trees 
were in flower, but was no doubt also in a greater measure the 
result of the previous cold summer and autumn, which did not 
allow the young shoots to become properly ripened. 
The flowering of wild trees and shrubs varied considerably, 
but as a rule there was only a moderate amount of blossom on 
most of them. It may be remembered that one of the most 
noteworthy features of 1909 was the profuse flowering and 
fruitage of the elms, and more particularly of the wych elms. 
