IS SPRING HERE?

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 59, 7 September 1931, Page 6

IS SPRING HERE?

August-September weather is important: from many points of view. In the first place, because AugustSeptember sees the birth of spring, when "the young man's fancy lightly turns," etc. In the second place, because August-September shapes the nesting prospects of the fowl of the air, hence the recent appeal to consider the birds in August (Bird Month). No doubt bird-lovers would put the second reason first, and they may with justice point out that the poet did that, when he wrote, in memorable verse, of the "lovelier iris" that "gleams upon the burnished dove." Certain it is that neither doves nor loves flourish in a blizzard. Again, there is a third reason, and here we get down to the hard economics of the farm. The farmer as a birlh-control expert has to consider very carefully the relative, merits of August and September, because a few days njay'' make a huge difference to the lambing- percentages and survivals; As New Zealand has "a bundle of local climates," and as no one climate is consistent* with itself, the farmer will need to become more and more a practical meteorologist. This year on the average August was dry. On the other hand, the weekend in Wellington followed up a September blizzard with a September frost. In South, Canterbury and Nelson the dryness has become drought. Wellington could have spared them some rain on Saturday,'in return for their sunshine to-day."