Dodgeville chronicle. [volume] (Dodgeville, Wis.) 1862-current, 1872-09-06
A Year Without a Summer.

WHILE every one Is speaking of the
present season as being remarkable In its
characteristics, have gathered for your
readers some reliable facts of the year
1876, known as ''the year without sum-
mer." Few persons now living can recol-
lect it, but it was the coolest ever known
through Europe and America. The fol-
lowing is a brief abstract of the weather
during each month of the year:
January was mild, so much so as to
render fires almost needless in parlors.
December previous was very cold.
February was not very cold; with the
exception of few days it was mild, like
its predecessor.
March was cold and boisterous during
the first part of it; the remainder was
mild. A great freshet on the Ohio and
Kentucky rivers caused great loss of
property.
April began warm, but grew colder as
the month advanced, and ended with
snow and ice, and temperature more
like winter than spring.
May was more remarkable for fr0wns
than smiles. Buds and fruits were frozen;
ice formed half an inch thick; corn killed,
and the fields again and again replanted,
until deemed too late.
0uHO w do LuC COluCSG GNcI huOWu Ill
this latitude. Frost, ice and snow were
common. Almost every green thing kill
ed. Fruit nearly all destroyed Snow
fell to the depth of ten inches in Vermont,
several in Maine, three in the interior of
New York and also in Massachusetts.
Considerable damage was done at New
Orleans in consequence OF the rapid rise
of the river. The suburbs were covered
with water, and the roads were only pass
able with boats.
July was accompanied by frost and ice
On the 5th ice was formed of the thick
ness of a common window glass through
out New England, New York, and some
parts of Pennsylvania. Indian corn was
nearly all destroyed; some favorably stu
ated fields escaped. This was true of
some of the hill farms of Massachusetts.
August was more cherries, if possible,
than the summer months already passed.
Ice was formed half an inch thick. Indian
corn was so frozen that the greater part
was cut down and dried for fodder. AL
most every green thingwas destroyed both
in this country and in Europe. Papers
received from England state "that would
be remembered by the present generation
that the year 1916 was year in which
there was no summer" Very little corn
ripened in the New England and Middle
States. Farmers supplied themselves
from the corn produced in 1916 for the
seed of the spring of 1917. 1t sold at
from four to five dollars per bushel.
September furnished about two weeks
of the mildest weather of the season.
Soon after the middle it became very cold
and frosty; ice formed a quarter of an
inch thick.
October produced more than it's share
of cold weather; frost and ice in common.
November was cold and clustering.
Snow fell so as to make good sleighing.
December was mild and comfortable.
The above is briet summary of "the
cold summer of 1876" as it was called, in
order to distinguish it from the cold sea-
son. The winter was mild. Frost and
ice were common in every month of the
year. Very little vegetation matured in
the Eastern and Middle States. The
suns rays seemed to be destitute of heat
throughout the summer all nature was
clad in sable hue, and men exhibited no
little anxiety concerning the future of
this life.
The average wholesale price of flour
during that year, in the Philadelphia mar
ket, was thirteen dollars per barrel The
average price of wheat in England was
ninety-three shillings per quarter.-Cor.
Boston Globe.