Orleans independent standard. [volume] (Irasburgh, Vt.) 1856-1871, 1867-06-14
Climate of Vermont.
BY REV. T. S. HUBBARD.

BY REV. t. S. HUBBARD.
We seldom are injured by untimely
trosts. We had early frosts in 1916
In the new state of the country they
produced a famine. In the year 1857
we had untimely frosts that did us
considerable damage. but the corn
was not all killed. In 1861 damage
was done to the late corn and in 1866.
But in 1868 there was hardly one
bushel of sound corn of the ordinary
growth of the country raised on 50O,.
900 square miles of the West and
Northwest. Frosts on the 26th and
9th Of August literally destroyed
corn and with it pumpkins, beans and
buckwheat on the lowlands throughout
the West, and On the 18th of Septem.
Der frost killed all or nearly all of the
upland corn. Very little ifany ripen-
ed that year, and none of the long
kernelled or horse-tooth corn. 1866
was also hard on them, as they need
October as we do August and the
first half of September for our corn
My impression is they lose far more
crops west than we do in Vermont
from early fall frosts.
We are also less subject to severe
and destructive droughts. We know
what droughts are. We experience
more or less inconvenience from them
but when did we ever know Kansas
drouth, killing trees as well as corn
ANNALS and perennials, throughout the
State and reducing the inhabitants to
absolute penury? These droughts
prevail at times over southern Indi
ana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas and
probably to the Rocky Mountains, and
depend on meteorological phenomena
that are liable to recur.
| Neither are we so liable as they are
to be desolated by tornadoes. We
have gales that sometimes PROSTATE
sugar orchards and tall timber, anG
occasionally unroof buildings.
But while we have one such, they
have ten, and generally they are fal
more destructiv The best
buildings are there often destroyed
villages are greatly damaged, live;
lost and stock killed. The vast ex
tent of black prairie, heated by thC
scorching sun, is aptto produce violen
tornadoes followed by floods of rain
so that what is injured by wind il
often ruined by the following rain o.
hail some have attributed them to cur
| rents of electricity, but whatever ma.
be their cause, they are far too fre
quent for convenience, and become al
element in every wise mans calcula
tion about the safety and desirablenes
of a residence in the West.
In this connection may as well b.
mentioned the winters Of the tw,
sections. Some complain of our win
ters as long and severe. They ar
1 long but they are generally pleasant
7 A still cold time is not much to b
2 dreaded, and our winters afford US a
l indispensable opportunity for som
l kinds of business. 1t is far NOR
r pleasant to drive over a good snoy
} path, than to drive on sharp, higl
s frozen hubs, or splashing sticky mu
: six inches deep. 1t is far pleasante
J to encounter our coldest day.
Y however low the thermometer, tina
5 their piercing, resistless west winds
e There is vastly less suffering frol
:, cold in Vermont, than in Illinois.
e The thermometer falls lower her
is but their winds search to the found'
Il ton of all vitality. That is the reaso
l. why so many perish by the cold in th
l. West. Exposed to the resistles
n wind, their lungs congest, they canne
# breathe, fail and finally expire. A
2 exposed animals probably do the sam
r Hence the fearful destruction to an
3 NAL life on the night of the 31st g
G December. 1868, and 1st of Januar
a 1864. Probably more human being
e perished in Illinois, in those fort
t. eight hours than have perished
% New England from the same cause
fifty years. 1t is true there are plea
,e ant sunshiny days in winter there, an
G. the ground is generally bare, but
n. would be much better for the land
: it was covered with snow. 1t woul
d be better for stock too, for though tht
,r may ramble and pick up dried seds
h or slough-grass, it is probably of lit
Sc use to them. We do feed longer ths
% they, but we have the better acreas
Is to do it with, and usually great
Id profit in doing it.
at Their grass starts but very lit
lr earlier in spring than ours, if any, al
in withers under the frost nearly as sot
a in the fall, and though sheep keep o
III longer, and cattle, many of them net
er feeding but little less than they
n here.
IN We do not claim that Vermont
5e. the richest soil of any State, or th
x we can offer the greatest inducemen
I'd to farmers to settle here.
i'd But it is yer ygood State, answt
i'd ing reasonable expectations as well
no any State of this Union.
IN - ------- - s-----
st One more paying subscriber wante