In March the climate of the plains of the United Provinces varies from place to place.  In the western sub-Himalayan tracts, as in the Punjab, the weather still leaves little to be desired.  The sun indeed is powerful; towards the end of the month the maximum shade temperature exceeds 80 degrees, but the nights and early mornings are delightfully cool.  In all the remaining parts of the United Provinces, except the extreme south, temperate weather prevails until nearly the end of the month.  In the last days the noonday heat becomes so great that many persons close their bungalows for several hours daily to keep them cool, the outer temperature rising to ninety in the shade.  At night, however, the temperature drops to 65 degrees.  In the extreme south of the Province the hot weather sets in by the middle of March.  The sky assumes a brazen aspect and, at midday, the country is swept by westerly winds which seem to come from a titanic blast furnace.

The spring crops grow more golden day by day.  The mustard is the first to ripen.  The earlier-sown fields are harvested in March in the eastern and southern parts of the country.  The spring cereals are cut by hand sickles, the grain is then husked by the tramping of cattle, and, lastly, the chaff is separated from the grain on the threshing floor, the hot burning wind often acting as a natural winnowing fan.

The air is heavily scented with the inconspicuous inflorescences of the mangos (Mangifera indica).  The pipals (Ficus religiosa) are shedding their leaves; the sheshams (Dalbergia sissoo) are assuming their emerald spring foliage.

The garden, the jungle and the forest are beautified by the gorgeous reds of the flowers of the silk-cotton tree (Bombax malabarica), the Indian coral tree (Erythrina indica) and the flame-of-the-forest (Butea frondosa).  The sub-Himalayan forests become yellow-tinted owing to the fading of the leaves of the sal (Shorea robusta), many of which are shed in March.  The sal, however, is never entirely leafless; the young foliage appears as the old drops off; while this change is taking place the minute pale yellow flowers open out.

The familiar yellow wasps, which have been hibernating during the cold weather, emerge from their hiding-places and begin to construct their umbrella-shaped nests or combs, which look as if they were made of rice-paper.

March is a month of great activity for the birds.  Those that constituted the avian chorus of February continue to sing, and to their voices are now added those of many other minstrels.  Chief of these is the pied singer of Ind—­the magpie-robin or dhayal—­whose song is as beautiful as that of the English robin at his best.  From the housetops the brown rock-chat begins to pour forth his exceedingly sweet lay.  The Indian robin is in full song.  The little golden ioras, hidden away amid dense foliage, utter their many joyful sounds.  The brain-fever bird grows more vociferous day by day.  The crow-pheasants, which have been comparatively silent during the colder months of the year, now begin to utter their low sonorous whoot, whoot, whoot, which is heard chiefly at dawn.