OBSERVED IN HERTFORDSHIRE IN 1900. 
59 
For instance, until October 4th not a drop of rain had come 
through the soil in my uncropped percolation-gauge for more than 
a month. Good progress was made during the season with the 
preparation of the land for the reception of winter corn, for even 
in November the wet weather caused but brief interruptions owing 
to the dry subsoil rapidly absorbing all superfluous moisture. The 
yield of the principal farm-crops, taking the county as a whole, 
was, according to the returns sent in to the ‘Agricultural Gazette,’ 
as follows:—Wheat was about average, barley and oats were both 
more or less under average. The yield of mangolds was good, but 
turnips, hay, and potatoes were all much under average. 
Seldom has there been an autumn more favourable for all 
garden crops. In the kitchen garden the vegetables made sur¬ 
prising growth considering the check they had received duriDg 
the summer, while dahlias and other autumn-flowering plants 
remained in full flower until an unusually late period in the year. 
My dahlias at Berkhamsted were still flowering freely when cut 
down by frost on November 11th, which is a week later than the 
average date of their destruction in the previous fifteen years. 
Only once before during that period, viz. in 1898, have they 
remained altogether uninjured so late in the autumn. On the 
same night the dahlias were killed at Watford. At Hatfield wasps 
are reported to have been very numerous in the early part of the 
season. 
According to the returns sent in to the ‘ Gardeners’ Chronicle,’ 
the yield of fruit in Hertfordshire comes out as follows:—Apples 
proved an abundant crop, but the fruit was mostly small, while 
the yield of pears and plums was about average. [Raspberries, 
currants, and gooseberries were above average, but the crop of 
strawberries was only an average one. 
The ivy was eight days behind its average date in coming into 
flower. 
The swallow took its departure seventeen days later than its 
average date for the previous nine years. 
