Tim " waterspouts of blessed rain " that succeeded tne
succession of droughts produced a rare transformation scene. Complete greenness followed general brownness. Every grass field, every cofbmon is covered with a nap of fresh, lush grass, as if we were at the beginning of spring when redeunt jam gramina campis—the Horatian evidence of spring. Aftermath is a very pretty word, and thing, and we often get a much longer second growth after haysel ; but this new grass is of another quality than the usual summer aftermath. It is hardly less full of virtue than the April growth, and has instantly raised the milk pro- duction of dairy cattle and is rapidly fattening other stock. It has even extended the laying period of poultry. The utter greenness of the rural scene has been increased by two things. The continued health of the leaves of most trees--chestnut, lime and poplar excepted—has given little or no suggestion of autumn ; and on some tilths, which should be brown, the carpet of oat spathes, and even of wheaten, is unbroken. Some farmers, risking the danger of "winter pride," sowed as early as mid-September.
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