12 “The End of the Day, and the Last Load Home”

Finishing cutting hay! on Aug. 7, 1916. Pitcher—plant in bloom Aug. 7, 1917; also on Sept. 12, 1920. Maximum tempera- ture 85 deg. (shade) at 1 pm. Aug. 7, 1926.

Maximum 87 in the shade, on Aug. 8, 1920. Most of the swallows. crows and grackles gone from the N. Shore, August

10, 1926.

Maximum 90 F. at 4 pm. Aug. 15, 1928. Cut oats Aug. 15, 1930; these were stacked on Aug. 26th.

Began plowing for summer-fallow, Aug. 17, 1920. Maxi- mum 85 F., Aug. 17, 1933.

Frost nipped the pumpkin vines on night of Aug. 18. 1918. Haying season finished, Aug. 18, 1925. Maximum 95 1—2 deg. F., on Aug. 19, 1935.

Marsh Everlasting Pea (L palustris) in flower Aug. 20, 1916. Almost frost; cucum‘bers, etc., just touched Aug. 21, 1921. “Mushrooms plentiful this year; so, too, are blights and rusts,” note on Aug. 23, 1926.

Cut green feed, Aug. 24, 1916. Marsh Hedgenettle (Stachys palustris) in bloom, Aug. 24, 1918. Night of Aug. 24, 1927, awful gale and rain; garden ruined. Cut grain Aug. 24, 1933.

Magnificent display of Aurora on night of Aug. 26, 1916, covered all the heavens; (followed by a tremendous rainstorm on the night of Aug. 28th. N uptial flight of ants, Aug. 26, 1928, and Aug. 26, 1932; followed, as always, by rain. (Com-pare this sim- ultaneous, non—recurring, premeditated urge with that of other creatures). Water Thrush observed, Aug. 26, 1931.

The Swallows leave Aug. 28, 1920. It will be. of scientific value to record the date of arrival and departure of these birds annually.

A very dry month, last fortnight cold and dry ~— note on Aug. 31, 1918. Solar eclipse visible here on Aug. 31, 1932; about 85 per cent of solar surface olbscured.

A bad year for all tender crops—note on Aug. 31, 1936: for example, Quebec had 8 per centum more acreage of tobacco than in 1935, but had a lesser crop. Potatoes, a'short crop here and in U.S.A., gave the farmer the first break he’d‘ had in years.

SEPTEMBER

In September, ‘then comes the check, the change, the fall,’ as Tennyson says of another occasion. The night closes in earlier, and with the advent of cooler weather our tourist visitors from other lands depart. So do our summer resident birds. The grain is all in, the pastures look ‘bare and: ‘brown. Popular belief credits

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