FREAK CROPS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1939, Page 3

FREAK CROPS

NOVEMBER IN ENGLAND. AN INDIAN SUMMER. Describing November of this year in England the “Sunday Express” says: — In summer time temperatures Nature that was decaying has stood still, Nature that was sleeping has awakened, and that which was growing has sped upwards into premature fullness. To the man and woman in the street this means that the countryside that should be bare is still beautiful, that odd things are happening in their gardens. and that flowers and vegetables are cheap and plentiful. Warm winds from the Azores and Spain are the cause of this Indian summer. “But,” said one expert, “three November in the last 20 years have had high temperatures in the first fortnight. They were all followed by cold winters.” Here are some of the signs of summer that have been evident in the second week in November: — Violets are in flower in most parts of the south of England. Raspberries were picked in a Norfolk garden. Apple trees are blossoming in Surrey. Butterflies are still about. The Red Admiral and the tortoiseshell have been seen in Wandsworth, white ones in Suffolk and Hertfordshire. BEES ABOUT. Catkins, the first sign of spring, are hanging on trees in the Cotswolds. Bees are still alive. One was seen in the Temple, London, and a swarm at Crydon. Wasps, quiet and tired-look-ing, are on the wing. Goldfish in garden pools have spawned a second time. There is little hope these families will live. London’s pigeons are cooing, a sinister sign that there will be a lot of little pigeons arriving later into a world too cold for them. The autumn golds and ambers, coppers and russets of the woods have been richei’ than for many years, and the leaves are slaying on longer. Hens are laying mor.e profusely. Potatoes that were left in the ground until the last two' weeks are better —more waxy —because of the extra sun. Green vegetables have come along so quickly that there is a glut. NOT WANTED. “The weather couldn't be much worst that it is,” 'said a leading Covent Garden fruit merchant. “Vegetables have come on much too fast to be good for them. We are getting now what we should be getting next month. And because of the warm weather people don’t want them. Cauliflowers are almost unsaleable.” Mushrooms are too plentiful for the frowers’ tastes. They, too, have come up before their time. Field mushrooms, which should have finished long ago, are thriving. They are being gathered near Birmingham and as far north as Doncaster. The entire flower market is upset by the Indian summer. The glut has brought prices down. “What we want.” said a Covent Garden flower merchant, “is five degrees of frost —and we want it quick.” "WIGS” ON LAWNS. Botanists, professional as well as amateur, have, perhaps, been most thrilled of all. They are excited by the unusual number and variety of fungi appearing in, the gardens. Some London suburbanites have been waking up to find the immaculate lawns dotted with lawyer’s wigs, the little growths of the toadstool tribe that look like exact miniatures of the name. Some of the wild flowers, sue! as motherwart, caper spurge, shepherd’s purse, sorrel, daisy, and sow thistle, have provided rare specimens for collections’ cases. Their seeds have produced miniatures —complete stems leaves, flowers, seeds and all—measuring not more than an inch in height. It is supposed that the seed were carried by ants or on the feet of birds in their search for water during the dry weather. These exquisite freaks will probably be treasured as the strangest mementoes of St Martin’s summer, November, 1938.