21 MAY 1942, Page 10

Early Oaks

That extremely popular doggerel couplet (which extracts differe conclusions from the relative budding time of oak and ash) sho give the rural weather prophets a very definite lead this ye The oak was already well clothed when the ash buds (except saplings) were black. Let us then decide once for all accord' to the coming weather, whether we ought to rhyme oak with so or ash with splash. My own experience is that the grown oak always in leaf at an earlier date than the grown ash. In the mix praised Tennysonian line, "more black than ashbuds in the fro of March" (the last five words occur also in Shakespeare) "Ma might very often be substituted for "March."