“Ille ubi nascentem maculis variaverit ortum,
  Conditus in nubem, medioque refugerit orbe;
  Suspecti tibi sint imbres.... 
  Caeruleus pluviam denuntiat, igneus Euros. 
  At si quum referetque diem condit que relatum
  Lucidus orbis erit:  frustra terrebere nimbis
  Et claro silvas cernes aquilone moveri.”

Mr. Stephens recognises similar solar indications in the following rhymes:—­

  “If the sun in red should set,
  The next day surely will be wet;
  If the sun should set in grey,
  The next will be a rainy day.”

And again—­

  “An evening red, or a morning grey,
  Doth betoken a bonnie day;
  In an evening grey and a morning red,
  Put on your hat, or ye’ll weet your head.”

In his next edition we recommend to Mr. Stephens’s notice the Border version of the latter:—­

  “An evening red and a morning grey,
  Send the shepherd on his way;
  An evening grey and a morning red
  Send the shepherd wet to bed.”

The most learned meteorologists of the present day believe the moon to influence the weather—­the practical farmer is sure of it—­and we have known the result of the hay crop, in adjoining farms, to be strikingly different, when upon the one the supposed influence of the time of change was taken into account and acted upon, while in the other it was neglected.  Mr. Stephens gives as true proverbs—­

* * * * *

  “In the wane of the moon,
  A cloudy morning bodes a fair afternoon.”

And

  “New moon’s mist
  Never dies of thirst.”

But Virgil is more specific—­

  “Ipsa dies alios alio dedit ordine Luna
  Felices operum; quintam fuge.... 
  Septuma post decumam felix et ponere vitem,
  Et prensos domitare boves.”

And in these warnings he only imitates Hesiod—­

  [Greek:  Pempias de hexaleasthai, hepei chalepai te chai ainai.]

And

  [Greek:  Maenos de isamenou trischaidecha taen haleasthai,
  Spezmatos azxasthai phuta de henthzepsasthai arisa.]

But the vague prognostics of old times are not sufficient for the guidance of the skilful and provident farmer of our day.  The barometer, the thermometer, and even the hygrometer, should be his companions and guides, or occasional counsellors.  To the description and useful indications of these instruments, therefore, a sufficient space is devoted in the book before us.  We do not know any other source from which the practical farmer can draw so much meteorological matter specially adapted to his own walk of life, as from this chapter upon the weather.