Plant kidney beans, if to plant 'em you're willing.
When elm leaves are as big as a penny,
You _must_ plant kidney beans if you mean to have any."

But if the grass grow in January, the husbandman is recommended to "lock
his grain in the granary," while a further proverb informs us that:--

"On Candlemas Day if the thorns hang a drop,
You are sure of a good pea crop."

In bygone times the appearance of the berries of the elder was held to
indicate the proper season for sowing wheat:--

"With purple fruit when elder branches bend,
And their high hues the hips and cornels lend,
Ere yet chill hoar-frost comes, or sleety rain,
Sow with choice wheat the neatly furrowed plain."

The elder is not without its teaching, and according to a popular old
proverb:--

"When the elder is white, brew and bake a peck,
When the elder is black, brew and bake a sack."

According to an old proverb, "You must look for grass on the top of the
oak tree," the meaning being, says Ray, that "the grass seldom springs
well before the oak begins to put forth."

In the Western Counties it is asserted that frost ceases as soon as the
mulberry tree bursts into leaf, with which may be compared the words of