The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1914-03-21
HAIL. SPRING IS HERE TOR, 10,
 DOTH NOT THE ALMANAC SAY so?

He XNTE CANNOT write in prose to-day Ah WY no, instead a roundelay, song of joy. and love- and niirth verse in praise of this old earth, that whirling goes upon its rounds within it's wide celestial bounds, doing a tango round the sun upon the course it's af- ways runs never venturing into space upon i. sudden wild goose chase adown some dark and dangerous lane, but always steady, safe and sane; and many blessing, earth, you bring but fairest and sweetest Of all is Spring Spring And the sun's awakening rays shatter the fet-3 ters by Winter bound Springl And the balmy warming days melt into life the frozen ground. Spring. And the birdies northward wing Spring! And the purling brooklets sing as if for joy al being free from Winters icy tyranny. The grass and plants come peeping up the tulip, violet, buttercup Old Mother Ma ture,s floral dover burst into leaf and bud and flower And earth, so lately bleak and bare, it's gala colors soon will wear in all its furbeloWs and friIls of posiess trees and circus bills. Out from their nests the skeeters crawl and soon will ply their bloody trade; the umpire soon will sllriek, play ball and pennant hopes will rise and fade. Yea, these and other things we see. lis hard to write in prose to-day, but harder stiII in poetry. more difficult roundelay, 'tis hard. in fact totvPite at all here in the fcityss noisy heart when gentle ;Springtime's wooing call bids us to flee thesbusy mart Hail! Spring s is l1eret For, To, doth not the almanac say so2
 Iii other words this oblate spheroid on which NC live, in its searly y1circIe, reached the NeFHat equinox thdS morning. sAstf0nOHIcally ' btit not always meteorologically. this means the arrival of Spring in those egions of the north temperate zonc which have always been the chief centers of civilization Insthe southern hemisphere. on the contrary, the passing Of Old Sol across inc equator on his northward Journey means the end of Summer and the beginning of Autumn.
 Scientifically, tle equinoctica1 points are those al which the equnoctial and the elliptic intersect: Now you know Eqninoetial time is rcckoned from the moment in each year when The sun passes the yernal equinox This in stant is selected as convenient starting point of a uniform reckoning Of time for the purposes of astronomical observers.
 Tn former times there was much talk of equinoctial storms and if was with most peo- pie an article of faith that the vernal equinox observations of meteroIogists, however, have proved that there is no basis for this popular be- lief
 Until comparatively recent times most mod ern nations began the legal year in March at about the time of the Vernal equinox, and the same system was observed in a number of an- cient nations. This seeins much more natur- al arrangement than the present arrangement. so far as the northern hemisphere is concerned.
 The equinox in astronomy, is either one of the two points at which the sum- in it's annual apparent course, crosses the equator. The yer nal equinox occurs about March 2i, and the au- tumnal equinox about Sept. 3 The vernal ; equinox of the northern hemisphere core spends with the auturnnal equinox of the south ern, and vice versa. It takes the sun seven or eight days longer to go from vernaI to autumn nal equinox than from autumnaI to vernal--an arrangement that is pleasing to most people.
 But the main point is that Spring Is here. No matter what the weather man says, Spring has arrived.