The face of the earth naked to a surprising degree. Wheat hardly to be seen, & no signs of any grass: turneps all gone, & sheep in a starving way. All provisions rising in price. Farmers cannot sow for want of rain.
Ground hard, & thick ice. Crocuss in full bloom. Birds mute. Farmers feed yir sheep with bran & oates.
Snow at night. A flock of lapwings haunt about the common.
Thermorm at sunrise down at 17 abroad: at 10 o’clock at night 25: at sun rise 23 1/2.
Severe frost, sun, & flights of snow. Cutting wind. Dr. Johnson says “that in 1771 the season was so severe in the island of Sky, that it is remembered by the name of the black spring. The snow, which seldom lies at all, covered the ground for eight weeks, many cattle dyed, & those that survived were so emaciated & dispirited that they did not require the male at the usual season.” The case was just the same with us here in the South: never were so many barren cows known as in the spring following that dreadful period. Whole dairies missed being in calf together.
Cucumber-plants thrive & shew the rudiments of bloom & fruit. Farmer Turner sows wheat. Crocuss figure.
Crocuss begins to blow & make a show. Upon examination it seems probable that the gulls which I saw were the pewit-gulls, or black caps, the larus ridibundus Linn: They haunt, it seems, inland pools, & sometimes breed on them. See Brit. zool vol: 2nd.
Wild fowls on Woollmere pond. Some large white fowls also: qu: what? They had black heads. Snipes begin to pipe in the moors.
Crocuss at this time used to be in full bloom. Only one or two roots blowed before this frost began. Made the bearing-cucumber bed with 8 cartloads of dung.
Hard frost, grey, severe wind. The ground thawed much in the middle of the day. Rooks build notwithstanding the severe weather.
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