The southerner., 1863-11-21
From the Richmond Sentinel.
An .Aacies,t Diary.

An l1HcteN Dtuy
We are indebted to an esteemed
friend for the following extracts from
the diary of an Amelia county planter,
of the last century. They will not be
without their interest to our readers,
and will, we trust, suggest to some the
com nendable habit of keeping diary !:
T Eetracts from the Diary Of a Gen
tten,an Of Aa,etiu.l
This day, 9th September, 1909
at night, begun a gust of wini, which
lasted until l. o'clock the Sth of the
! same month. 1t blew the corn fat to
the ground, and destroyed most of the
fodder; also, destroyed much of the
tobacco, .and blew up many trees by
! th, roots.
April 2l, 177O-This day it snow.
ed, from IL o'clock till about that time
the same evening, and was followed by
two severe frosts, which killed most OF
the peaches, &c
May Goth, It'll At this time there
was the greatest freshet in James and
i Roanoke rivers ever known. James
river was forty feet higher than any
common tide; many valuable planta.
tions quite ruined by this freshet; be.
sides houses carried off.
June 26th, l772.--It commenced te
snow, aud continued for six days, with
very little intermission. The snow, on
a level, was about twoGfeet deep; in
many places it was four feet, Much Of
the deer was destroyed by this snow.
From the lst Of May, l772, to tht
I'd day of June following, not any
sain; the Sd day of June planted al
day; till then, bad not planted on,
tobacco plant; then only 10000 hills
had not been able to make any NOR,
hills.
June llth, 177s This day it snow.
ed much in many places; and for three
days it was very cold /; two frosts a
tae same time.
July 18th, 1775 This evening tn,
appearance of daylight lasted from th'
setting of the sun until IL o'clock a
night; appeared from n W. to N e
as light as if the moon was just rising
February 81, l774.--At about o.
clock in the morning it thundered much
and were many severe flashes of light
ming; at the same time the ground wa.
covered with snow.
February 2lst, 1774.--At quarter
after 2 o'clock, in the sfterneon. wa
an earthquake the noise was lik
thunder, from North to South, which
lasted minute. The trembling of tn,
earth, under my feet, seemed to con
tlnue fourth of a minute. The desk
chairs, and everything in !the hous
shook; also, the house itself. wa
in my new ground, half mile from
home. | walked to the house. an
While writing at my desk, another shocl
occurred, which shook the house, bu
lasted very short while, with uois
like thunder to the South. The las
was just half an hour after the first.
February 22d, l774--This day
which is the one succeeding the frs
shock, was another Slight earthquake
. htSse Il occurred about l o'clock in the afte,
!: Wednesday,) at 5 o'clock in the eve
ming, we had another shock, of sho
y duration. These shocks were On thrs
g succeeding days
i May 4th, l774 On the night
/. this day, we had SO severe frost
- killed all of the corn, tobacco plant
and fruit Of all kinds The next mig
y was very cold. The greater part
se the wheat crop was killed by the abo
a frost. Many people moved their wheI
h. and planted corn on the land othe
is turned in their horses upon it. T
d. trees were, many, quite killed; t
I'd leaves were killed, and fell off, as
ly the autumn; in many places, not
! d green leaf was to be seen.