COUNTRY LIFE
To one country household at least May 19th is a red-letter day, to be celebrated more quietly, if all goes well, but not less fervently than May Day itself in less favoured places. Its significance is that it ends each year, one way or the other,a pericid of fear—fear lest a mid-May frost,descend- ing on the orchard, should cripple its apple harvest ; descending on the. road should reduce the leaves of young pedigree walnuts—from the Persian Gulhak B to the English champions Lady Irene and Northdown Clawnut—to sable and disconsolate mourning. Nor is that release from fear the day's only title to remembrance. May 19th has come by custom to be recognised as the day on which the summer claims of the land at last defeat the winter claims of the water.
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