At 09:04 AM 2/19/99 -0800, you wrote:
>I know this doesn't exactly pertain to NY history, but when do the
>signs of spring start to appear? (It's going into a story set around
>the turn of the century...)
>
>Rachel Hullett


Depends on where you are and how the trends of the weather have been.

Folks in CNY try to get their corn in by May 15th, but that is late in
comparison to most other parts of the state.  Some places have robins
year-round, so that doesn't mean that they have spring while other places
don't.  The change in the song of the Chickadee (to a sharp "he-did-it)
always seemed an early alert, but I don't have the stats to prove that.

Down here in VA we are headed into the coldest night of the winter (15
deg!) but the grass is greening up will, the wild onions are a half a foot
tall, and the forsythia are just beginning to bloom!  Spring is on the way,
so keep track of the progress of events and see what it is that makes you
determine that it is finally spring!

If you are looking at a particular year perhaps some of those otherwise
historically barren diaries kept by people whose lives were so boring that
they did little but report on the changing of the seasons would be of help
- lots of notes about "first" in those sources.

Dan W.
(missing the snow - believe it or not!)