400 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER, 
Mny  5.  1»98. 
would  be  ushered  in  with  snow  and  frost,  but  he  came  and  left  again  with 
a  smiling  face.  Christmas  drew  on.  There  was  a  question  as  to  how 
bacon  would  cure  in  the  mild,  tepid  atmosphere,  but  the  wiseacres  said, 
“Oh,  by  the  time  the  pig  is  killed  and  cut  up,  the  weather  will  be  sharp 
enough but  it  was  not.  We  do  not  live  in  the  sunny  South,  but  in 
a  cold,  bleak  district  of — never  mind  where ;  and  yet  there  was  only 
one  day  on  which  the  ponds  bore,  and  that  was  December  25th.  Alas  I 
by  Monday  all  trace  of  ice  had  gone,  and  young  and  old  pleasure 
seekers  were  grievously  disappointed. 
It  is  not  often  we  lie  awake  in  winter  thankfully  listening  to  the 
rain  on  the  window  pane.  Time  after  time  the  clouds  gathered  up, 
and  we  hoj^ed  for  downfall  of  some  kind — snow,  of  course,  being 
expected — but  no,  the  clouds  rolled  off  again.  It  is  rather  a  strong 
record — in  our  diary — only  three  wet  days  in  December,  and  the 
entry  “beautifully  fine”  occurring  so  many  times,  and  a  rain  spoken  of  as 
“  opportune.”  It  must  have  been  greatly  desired. 
We  have  noted  for  long  that  January  is  often  a  dry  month,  except 
there  be  heavy  snowfalls,  but  although  at  times  the  sky  was  leaden 
the  air  was  never  really  cold,  as  it  is  before  coming  snow,  and  the  snow 
never  did  come,  and  the  rain  but  seldom.  There  may  have  been  two 
rainy  daj’s,  and  possibly  a  heavy  shower  or  two,  but  that  was  the 
outside.  No  work  for  plumbers  ;  no  slack  time  for  men  or  horses. 
One  does  not  often  dawdle  about  in  the  garden  for  pleasure  in 
January,  but  bright  sunshine  and  fresh  air  are  very  tempting,  and  the 
garden  never  had  a  winterly  look. 
Who  has  not  heard  of  snow  pancakes  for  Shrove  Tuesday  ?  Well, 
those  who  waited  for  snow  to  make  that  delicacy  will  be  waiting  still. 
The  situation  was  in  February  getting  serious — no  rain,  no  frost  to 
mellow  the  land,  and  worse  than  that,  the  watercourses  were  all  dry 
and  springs  failing.  With  dry  watercourses  in  February  we  could 
only  hope  the  blustering  winds  of  IMarch  would  prove  damp  winds. 
The  1st  came  stormy  winds  and  whirling  snow — not  to  stop  — 
evening  saw  all  clear  again,  and  bright  as  a  May  day.  On  the  15th 
we  thought  we  were  in  for  a  change,  and  were  thankfully  getting 
wet — only  just  a  little  top  moistui-e,  enough  to  vex  without  doing 
material  good.  On  the  23rd  the  bright  weather  lefc  us,  and  then 
came  bitter  blasts ;  but,  alas  !  the  rainfall  was  still  very  light.  We 
had  never  felt  so  miserable  for  months.  Talk  about  the  skinning 
process ;  why,  you  had  only  to  walk  across  the  garden  to  be  literally 
dayed.  Happily  this  state  of  things  did  not  last  long,  and  we  really 
suppose  some  coarse  weather  was  our  due. 
By  April  1st  the  sun  again  was  in  the  ascendant,  and  Good  Friday 
broke  a  peerless  day ;  blue  skies,  balmy  breezes — so  soft,  so  mild,  so 
idorious.  For  pleasure  seekers  Easter  Day  was  not  so  perfect,  so  we 
hailed  the  showers  with  acclamation,  and  the  steady  downfall  of 
Monday,  followed  by  a  “  droppy  ”  week,  has  put  us  all  in  good  trim. 
Dwellers  in  town  have  little  notion  perhaps  as  to  the  extent  of  this 
last  winter’s  drought.  Dry  winters  they  do  not  look  for  and  do  not 
understand ;  but  to  country  folks,  who  have  water  to  lead  for  stock  in 
February,  the  prospects  are  ominous.  But  for  this  anxious  care  for 
the  future  we  should  have  engaged  every  hour  of  the  past  winter. 
Perhaps  we  are  too  tender,  but  the  cold  does  so  nip,  and  this  year 
there  has  been  such  abundance  of  fodder  and  roots  that  there  has  been 
enough  and  to  spare.  The  bodies  of  our  stock  have  been  warm  inside 
and  out,  and  that  is  a  very  comforting  reflection  to  the  owner. 
From  October  1st  to  March  31st  there  were  110  warm  days, 
trveuty-eight  of  which  fell  in  January.  iMarch  stands  at  the  head  of 
the  cold  months.  December  was  the  only  month  of  the  six  with 
anything  like  an  average  rainfall,  and  even  these  rains  were  exceed¬ 
ingly  partial  in  their  nature. 
During  the  last  half  century  there  have  only  been  two  winters 
with  a  smaller  rainfall,  and  they  were  those  of  1879-80  and  1858-9, 
and  in  the  same  period  only  four  rvarmer  ones.  To  one  set  of 
sportsmen  this  dry  winter  has  been  a  great  nuisance — we  mean  the 
hunting  fraternity.  Several  early  meets  had  to  be  postponed  alto¬ 
gether  because  the  “going”  rvas  so  fearfully  hard,  and  even  when 
things  got  into  full  swing  men  and  horses  experienced  much  damage 
and  much  hard  knocking  about.  Horses’  legs  will  not  stand  ground 
.as  hard  as  a  turnpike,  and  most  men  like  at  any  rate  to  fall  “  soft.” 
If  the  beginning  were  bad,  the  end  was  even  worse,  and  many  packs 
had  to  make  a  premature  finish.  We  wonder  if  this  year  the  Beaufort 
hounds  will  kill  their  annual  May  fox. 
Good  comes  out  of  evil,  and  the  demand  for  sound  horses  has  been 
brisk.  There  is,  we  fear,  many  a  good  hunter  who  will  spend  this 
summer  in  retirement  with  a  very  doubtful  chance  of  being  fit  for 
work  by  next  November.  Well,  perhaps  a  “  short  life  and  a  merry 
one”  is  not  to  be  quite  despised.  This  year  in  Bodo,  N.  Norway, 
up  to  January  20th  there  had  only  been  two  days  when  sledging 
was  possible.  Let  us  hope  that  the  winter  season  of  1898-9  will 
not  be  Arctic  in  its  severity,  things  and  weather  in  particular  do  so 
love  to  go  by  the  rule  of  contrary  ! 
WORK  ON  THE  HOME  FARM. 
Since  last  week  we  have  had  a  change  of  wind  to  the  east  with  sunny 
days  and  frosty  nights  ;  the  dust  is  blowing  in  clouds  past  the  window  as 
we  write,  and  we  are  beginning  to  think  a  little  more  rain  would  be  very 
useful.  Wheats  are  looking  grand,  and  some  are  so  big  that  harrows 
have  little  effect  on  them.  The  dry  weather  has  made  the  harrowing 
go  very  well,  these  big  Wheats  could  hardly  have  been  harrowed  under 
other  conditions  of  weather.  We  have  put  a  little  more  Barley  in,  and 
have  now  finished  for  the  season.  This  last  did  not  go  in  too  well ; 
the  land  was  a  bit  strong,  and  recent  sheep  treading  had  made  it  very 
knotty. 
The  outbreak  of  war  between  Spain  and  the  States  has  caused  a  boom 
in  food  stuffs.  We  are  taking  the  chance  of  a  clear-out  of  Potato  pies, 
and  have  got  all  the  spare  seed  off  to  market  to  be  sold  as  seconds,  whilst 
our  last  pie  of  ware  has  been  sold  at  £6  per  ton  (on  rails) — a  very 
satisfactory  clear  out. 
The  hum  of  the  thrashing  machine  has  been  more  prevalent  than  is 
usual  in  April,  so  it  seems  that  farmers  are  wise  enough  to  see  the 
advantage  of  selling  their  remaining  stocks  of  Wheat  whilst  the  market  is 
on  the  rise. 
Stoppage  of  American  meat  supplies  is  likely  very'  shortly  to  raise  the 
price  of  beef  and  mutton,  in  fact  a  rise  has  already'  begun.  It  would, 
therefore,  appear  that  now  is  the  time  for  the  grazier  to  use  artificial 
foods  to  assist  the  pastures  in  bringing  stock  to  maturity,  whilst  home 
productions  may  have  command  of  our  markets. 
We  are  having  an  excellent  opportunity  given  us  now  to  complete  the 
cleaning  of  fallows.  Few  fields  within  our  knowledge  require  more  than 
one  dressing  over  with  drag,  roll,  and  harrow  to  make  them  agriculturally 
clean. 
Small  seeds  may  be,  and  often  are.  sown  amongst  spring  corn  after  the 
latter  has  come  up.  Where  the  land  is  very  apt  to  produce  weeds  the 
])ractice  is  a  good  one,  as  the  necessary  harrowing,  whilst  covering  up  the 
small  seeds,  will  destroy  millions  of  small  weeds.  The  Barley  or  Oats 
must,  however,  be  well  up  and  be  fairly  strong.  The  weather,  also,  must 
be  dry,  as  spring  corn  will  not  stand  harrowing  wet.  The  weed  question 
apart,  we  think  that  Clover  and  grasses  should  always  be  sown  with  the 
corn,  as  it  is  much  the  safest  way  to  secure  a  good  plant. 
OUIl  LETTER  BOX  • 
“Strong”  Butter  (E.  A.). — Your  letter  shall  have  attention.  It 
arrived  one  post  too  late  for  enabling  an  answer  to  be  published  this  week. 
METEOROLOGICAL  OBSERVATIONS. 
Camdex  Square  London. 
Lat.  51°  32'  40"  N.;  Loug.  0°  8'  0"  W.;  Altitude  111  feet. 
Date. 
9  A.M. 
In  the  Day. 
Rain. 
1898. 
April. 
S  g'3 
1 
s-3^- 
Hygrometer 
Direc¬ 
tion  of 
Wind. 
Temp 
of  soil 
at 
1  foot 
Shade  Tem¬ 
perature. 
Radiation 
Tempera¬ 
ture. 
Dry. 
Wet. 
Max. 
Min. 
In 
Sun 
On 
Grass 
Sunday  ....  24 
Monday  ....  25 
Tuesday  ....  26 
Wednesday  27 
Thursday  . .  28 
Friday .  29 
Saturday ....  30 
inchs 
3C -200 
30T68 
29-891 
■29-565 
•29  593 
-29-593 
29-602 
deg. 
49-8 
48-1 
47-1 
.51-8 
.50-9 
51  -4 
52-2 
deg. 
42-4 
45-3 
45-1 
50-0 
49-4 
48-4 
47-8 
N.B. 
N.E. 
N. 
N.W. 
S. 
S.E. 
deg. 
45- 8 
46- 0 
46- 7 
47- 9 
47- 8 
48- 1 
48-1 
47-2 
deg. 
58-3 
57  "2 
62-4 
58-3 
57-6 
60-3 
66-7 
deg. 
31  -6 
34-9 
41-1 
47-3 
43-2 
47  -7 
41-6 
deg. 
99-5 
96-3 
104-2 
76-1 
84-8 
94-1 
93-0 
deg. 
28-8 
30-9 
35- 3 
47-2 
37-9 
42-4 
36- 4 
inchs 
0-149 
0-207 
0-011 
0-014 
0-020 
29*802 
50-2 
46-9 
58-7 
41-1 
92-6 
37-0 
0-401 
REMARKf.S. 
24th.— Brilliant  all  day  and  ni.aht. 
2.‘ith. — Cloudy  early,  and  occasionally  during  the  day. 
20th. — Overcast  morning  ;  frequent  sun  from  0.30  to  4  P.M.  ;  showery  from  5  P.M., 
and  steady  rain  from  7.30  p.M.  to  10  p.m. 
27th.— Gleams  of  sun  in  afternoon,  but  generally  overcast,  and  foggy  and  gloomy 
early  and  in  evening. 
2Sth.— Rain  from  3  A.M.  to  8  A.M.,  and  dull  drizzly  morning  ;  fair  from  noon,  and 
sunny  from  3  p.m.  ;  cloudy  night. 
29th. — Overcast  and  dull  morning;  alternate  cloud  and  sunshine  in  afternoon, 
with  occasional  slight  rain. 
30th.— Overcast,  with  almost  continuous  spots  of  rain  or  drizzle  till  2  p.m.  ; 
generally  sunny  after  3  P.M.,  and  clear  night. 
Another  average  week,  but  with  a  little  more  (and  very  welcome)  rain  towards 
the  end. — G.  J.  SYMON3. 
