Agricultural Proverbs

January will strike down.
February will despoil a giant.
March will slay
April will flay
May will raise the heart.
June will make a merry door-way
July a merry cattle-fold.
August a merry host.
September rejoices the birds.
October cheerful is social intercourse.
November begins the lamentation.
December beware its anger


A small bagful of March dust is worth a large bag of the king’s gold
A swarm of bees, if had in May, is worth eight oxen-load of hay.
A June swarm is good if healthy.
A July swarm is not worth a straw.
If the grass grows in February, it will not grow much after throughout the year.
If the meadow grows in March, plenty will be seen to follow.
Happy our lot, if a mild April will clothe (with green) the ground and the branches of the grove.
A showery May will produce a loaded land of corn and hay.
The month of June, it is well if it be partly wet and partly dry.
It is poison to the horse and ox, if July be not dry.
If August be found dry, the Welshman may then rejoice.
The middle of September if dry, will make a cellar full of good ale.
A grossamery spring and a full pocket.
A dry summer never left a famine after it.
February will blow the snake out of its nest.
A cold May will make a full barn and an empty churchyard.
March wind and May sunshine will make ugly what would not otherwise be so.
Better to see thy mother on bier, than to see fair weather in January.
A swarm of bees in July, its highest price is a fern seed.
Three things will prosper in rain; chickweed, and thistles, and elder,
A year of haws, a monied year; a year of nuts, a lousy year.
A nutty copse, a mottled harvest.
Wet and warmth in April will cause the farmer to sing like the nightingale.
When the rain is lost it will come from the east.
When the fair weather is lost it will come from the north.
A dry April, everything languishes.
When everything grows, everything will live.
A cold may, a healthy day, a sign of summer with little sickness.
A kind April will wet the bush and dry the bush.
February will fill the ditches, and March will drink it up in draughts.