The Westerly echo, & Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1854-1858, 1856-02-14
Westerly, February II, 1856.
Cold Weather.


and generally very reliable authority,
tho 4" oldest inhabitant," will be under
the necessity of admitting that our pre-
sent winter has been about parallel for
those they used to have in odd times"
1t strikes u, that for the past six or eight
weeks tho weather in this vicinity has
been about equal to anything known in
that line for many years past ; and this
kind Of weather has not been, by any
means, as we see by the papers, local
affair.
The postmaster at Nebraska City, w.
I. W., writes under date of Jan. 7, that
they have had FIVE inches of snow on the
ground, and that the thermometer is
twenty-four degrees below zero. Pret-
ty fair for new country, and it is to
be hoped that it may cool off little of
the ruffianism to which they are so prone
in that portion of the country. An ice
bridge, above Niagara Falls, connecting
with Goat Island and Canada shore, has
been safely travelled by pedestrians for
some time past. Such thing has net
happened before for twenty-five years
Letters from Ontonagon, Northern
Michigan, state that the weather has
been intensely cold in that region, the
thermometer varying from nineteen to
twenty eight degrees below zero most Of
the time, and at twelve degrees below at
midday in the sunshine. There was a
great scarcity of provisions at Ashland,
La Pontc, Wis, and Superior-besf
selling at $50 per barrel, and other sup
plies in proportion.
As to the effects of the severe cold
upon the fruit and other trees, We learn
from the papers that, the fruit trees, in
nearly all directions, and even Towering
shrubs which have stood in gardens for
years without injury, have felt the frost
this season. In Florida, the orange
trees, it is feared, are ruined. In the
neighborhood of Louisville, KY, we see
by the accounts that the peach and 9th
er fruit trees have been killed by the
frost. In North Carolina, tl,g gdsand. Of
dollars have bOen lost by the il jury done
to the pine trees of that region, which
furnish almost the only article of trade
in that quarter. In Virginia the april
cots have been almost entirely destroy
ed, and throughout Pennsylvania and
) New York, and still farther north, the
injury is great, though in these places
the cold has not been so unreasonable,
and the trees are better able to endure
the extreme cold. In Boston the cold
weather has been so severe thai, as one
of the Boston papers states, tho linden
trees which adorn the side walks, split
!, with the frost as if wedge had been
driven into them.
The forest trees, in many places, have
, suffered severely, and we shall probably
hear next summer of tho trees prema-
turely dying from the injuries received
this winter.
1t is to be hoped, however, that many
, of these reports and apprehensions are
little exaggerated-as it not unfre-
> quently happens that the fruit trees are
= supposed to be moro injured by the frost
e than the ensuing summer proves to be
. the case. AS for the grain and grass
, so far, they have been well protected
by the warm covering of snow and an
other year like the last, which we can
hardly expect, would have q tendency
f to materially diminish tho now .cxtrava.
CANT prices of grains.
This winter has also been quite re-
markable for the number and-scgulariIy
: OF its stormy days. In looking over the
papers from different sections Of -the
country, We find that this feature has
been quite an extensive one. One Of
: the New York papers statcs that last
Sunday was the nineteenth consecutive
D stormy Sunday, in which it has either
' rained or showed. The Portland me. J
advertiser of Monday, sayss-tAY ester
: day was, we believe, the ninsteonth suc,
Y cessivs stormy Sunday we have had in