The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1873-01-31
M j S c eIIa1le us.
4 Year without a Summer.

Almost everybody has heard his father
tell about the terrible dark year in the
early part of the present century, which old
farmers still refer to as Eighteen
hundred and starved to death" A Boston
Globe contributor gives the following in.
formation:
While every one is speaking Of the pre-
sent season as being remarkable in its
characteristics l have gathered for YOU
readers some reliable facts ofthe year 1916
known as "tho year without summer
Few persons now living can rccollect it
but it was the coolest ever known in
Europe and America. The following is q
brief abstract of the weather during each
month of the year:
January was mild so much so as to rem,
der fires almost needless in parlors De-
cember 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 treshet 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 a temperature more
like winter than spring.
May was more remarkable for frowns
than smiles. Buds and fruits were frozen
ice formed haitian inch thick; corn killed
and the fields again and again replanted
until deemed too late.
June was the coolest ever known in this
latitude. Frost, ice and snow were COM
mon. Almost every green thing was kill
ed. Fruit nearly all destroyed. Snow fell
to the depth of ten inches in Vermont
seven 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 passable
in boats.
July was accompanied by frost and ice
On the 9Th, ice was formed ofthc thickness
of common window glass, throughout
New England, New York. and some parts
of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Indian
corn was nearly all destroyed; some favor
ably situated in fields, escaped.
August was more checrless, if possible,
than the summer months already passed.
Ice was formed haitian inch thick. Indian
corn was so frozen that the great part was
cut down and dried for fodder. Almost
every green thing was destroyed, both in
this country and inEurope. Papers receiv-
ed from England state, that it would be
remembered by the present generation
that the year 1916 was year in which
there was no summer" Very little corn
ripened in New England and Middle
States. Farmers supplied themselves from
the corn produced in 1915 for the seed of
five dollars per bushel.
September furnished about two weeks
of the mildest weather ofthe season. Soon
after the middle it became very cold and
frosty; ice formed quarter of an inch
thick.
October produced more than its 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 brief summary of 1.-THE
cold summer of 1916" 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 vegetation injured in the
Eastern and Middle States. The suns
rays seemed to be destitute of heat through
out the summer; all nature was clad in
sable hue, and men exhibited no little anX
iety concerning the future of this life.
The average Wholesale price of flour
during that year, in the Philadelphia mar
l1et, was thirteen dollars per barrel. The
average price of wheat in England was
thirty seven shillings per quarter.