The New York herald., 1873-07-10


war will be averted.
The Late Heavy and Destruotive
Storms I'm tho West.
Our Western States, from the great Plains
to the Allegheny Mountains, for some three
weeks have literally been deluged with heavy
rains, accompanied in many cases with de-
structive tornadoes and the keenest lightning
and thunder. Illinois, Indiana and Ohio
appear to have been the centres of these
numerous revolving storms, and the reports
of the resulting damages to the crops, includ-
ing the wheat harvested and shocked in the
fields. and the growing Indian corn, with the
numerous other losses of property are de-
plorable and discouraging.
Tuesday last is reported as the first day
at Springfield, ILL.,, during these three
weeks that no rain had fallen. For several
days before it had fallen in torrents in
the central and southern sections of
the State, resulting in serious losses to the
farmers Of their wheat oats, barley and hay,
just cut. The shocks of wheat, in great guam
titles had been blown down and spoiled
while the grain in those standing had COM
menced sprouting, the whole crop thus
visited being lost or rendered useless, except
for fodder or manure. And we have similar
reports from numerous counties in Indiana
and Ohio, with even heavier damages to the
harvested and growing crops than those suf-
fered by the farmers of Illinois. In addition
to these damages to the products of the fields
the whole section of country swept over
by this remarkable procession of storms has
suffered severely from the losses of other prop
erty blown down, inundated or washed away
Large bodies of forest trees and numerous
orchards have been prostrsted; dwellings,
mills, factories, churches have been demol-
ished miles upon miles Of fences have been
scattered over the fields roads have been
blockaded or flooded in every direction and
bridges and culverts have been swept away.
Never has there been in the West stormier
season than this for the last two weeks of June
and the first week of July All this, too,
while from Virginia to New York and thence
to Maine the country east of the Aneghanies
has been suffering from dry season, approach
ing disastrous drought, with only few re-
ieving showers since July set in, but hardly
sufficient, as yet, to change our sun-burnt
parks and fields to healthful green. For ex-
ample, the rain gauge at the sources of our
Croton water supply shows for the month of
June this year only about one-fourth of the
average rainfall in that district, and such for
the same period has been the average def
cheney over most of the Atlantic slope north Of
the James River.
But why these excessive rains in the West
and these scanty supplies in the East? This
is nice question for signal service bureau.
The great reservoirs from which the United
States east of the Rocky Mountains and the
basin of the St Lawrence draw their supplies
of water are the Gulf of Mexico and the Carib-
bean Sea. The general course Of the vapor
drawn from these liberal boilers is up the
Mississippi Valley in one current, and along
the Alleghanies and the Atlantic coast in
another. The general course Of the Missis-
sippi current, after reaching the upper river
appears to be eastward, between the great
lakes and the Ohio River. Hence it would
appear that for this Summer season, so far,
the masses OF vapor from which we draw our
principal rain supply have been exhausted
en- route from the West to the East, and before
passing the Alleghanies. The causes for this
extraordinary state Of things may be charged
to some peculiar conditions of the atmosphere
out West; some Cross currents of cold air from
the Arctic zone acting as condensers, while
in conflict with the warmer air currents
created by the late intense heats, have
produced these recent heavy Western storms
and destructive hurricanes But whatever
the exact causes for these extraordinary phe-
nomena may be, they are beyond our control
We must take them as they come but still
we hope that our dry season is over. and that
our turn is at hand for liberal supplies Of rain