year of corn." A Surrey proverb tells us that "It's always cold when the
blackthorn comes into flower;" and there is the rhyme which reminds us
that:--
"If the oak is out before the ash,
'Twill be a summer of wet and splash;
But if the ash is before the oak,
'Twill be a summer of fire and smoke."
There are several versions of this piece of weather-lore, an old
Kentish one being "Oak, smoke; ash, quash;" and according to a version
given in Notes and Queries (1st Series v. 71):--
"If the oak's before the ash, then you'll only get a splash,
If the ash precedes the oak, then you may expect a soak."
From the "Shepherd's Calendar" we learn that, "If in the fall of the leaf
in October many leaves wither on the boughs and hang there, it betokens
a frosty winter and much snow," with which may be compared a
Devonshire saying:--
"If good apples you would have
The leaves must go into the grave."
Or, in other words, "you must plant your trees in the fall of the leaf."
And again, "Apples, pears, hawthorn-quick, oak; set them at All-hallow-
tide and command them to prosper; set them at Candlemas and entreat
them to grow."
In Germany,[4] too, there is a rhyme which may be thus translated:--
"When the hawthorn bloom too early shows,
We shall have still many snows."
In the same way the fruit of trees and plants was regarded as a
prognostication of the ensuing weather, and Wilsford tells us that "great
store of walnuts and almonds presage a plentiful year of corn, especially
filberts." The notion that an abundance of haws betokens a hard winter is
still much credited, and has given rise to the familiar Scotch proverb:--
"Mony haws,
Mony snaws."
Another variation of the same adage in Kent is, "A plum year, a dumb
year," and, "Many nits, many pits," implying that the abundance of nuts