Gale Victims
Many gales in the records (above all that of March, 1016) have done much more damage to trees than those of last week ; but the date being rather unusual involved certain forms of destruction not often paralleled. Climbing plants suffered peculiarly.' The scene in some of the, more highly exposed hop-fields was one of utter devastation, though the actual loss was less than might have been feared. In most gardens, I should think, the' runner beans, 'that were a fine vertical screen, were laid horizontal and their poles broken. For myself I have never seen so many apples and pears on the ground. The wind Made a clean sweep of the crop, and though it is a bad apple year the windfalls arc so many that in some orchards it has not been thought worth while to pick them up. Even in the cider orchard4, where by custom the apples are allowed to fall; the overthrow was premature, though some of the later sorts stood the gale out. Among flowers the show dahlias were certainly the worst sufferers. Their heavy heads and weak necks were shattered wholesale, while the more desirable pompoms rode out the wind in triumph.
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