LAST week ended the latest of , a rare succession of
droughts or nedr- droughts. Looking at some diaries and records—not my own—I see that surprised comments on the dryness of the season have been repeated at close intervals for just a twelvemonth. The average rainfall from Septet'''. ber last to May was one inch .a month instead of two. Jersey potatoes .were already suffering from lack of rain in January. Here and there gie temperature exceeded 80 degrees at Easter. Such dry, hot periods one after another were a mere preface to the latest drought that came to a beneficent end on September 11th, when the sound of water down the pipes was music indeed and the ground smelt as sweetly as if it had been storing its scents for this occasion. The dryness was very widely spread, and was a severe infliction on the east side of England ; but it brought the ideal climate to the north-west, for instance the fells of Cumber- land, where there was always rain enough to keep the grass growing, and the sheep flourished exceedingly both before and after lambing time. The prevalence of foxes was the one complaint among the shepherds—and keepers of geese.
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