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
in the autumn indicates the "pits" or graves of those who shall succumb
to the hard and inclement weather of winter; but, on the other hand, "A
cherry year, a merry year." A further piece of weather-lore tells us:--

"Many rains, many rowans;
Many rowans, many yawns,"

The meaning being that an abundance of rowans--the fruit of the
mountain-ash--denote a deficient harvest.

Among further sayings of this kind may be noticed one relating to the