Kimball enterprise. (Kimball, Brule County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1883, 1883-06-22
The Year without a summer.

AAo L car VltuOuU summer
During cold spring, like that which
Is just now drawing to an end, people
generally console themselves with the
reflection that the sun will eventually
get the victory, and that summer will
VIII certainly come at last, though it's
coming may be delayed. Uncertain as
the weather is, the general features of
the seasons recur with a regularity
which warrants the confidence thus re-
posed in the annual return of seed time
and harvest; hdt there are instances ON
| record in which even the seasons seem
to have lost their characteristic features.
as if the ordinary laws of meteorology
had been temporarily suspended. A
remarkable case of this kind. and which
the long. continued cold weather of this
spring makes particularly interesting
just now, is that of the year 1916, which
hiss been called ''the year without a
su..mer." A communication printed
in the Congregationalist, OF Boston, gives
the following summary of the weather
OF this remarkable year:
January and February were mild
March was cold; April began warm, but
ended in snow and ice. Ice formed
an inch thick in May, and
fields were planted over and over
again till it was too late to replant. June
was the coldest ever known in this lali-
tude; frost and ice were common. AL.
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. There
were few warm days. 1t was called q
dry season. But little rain fell. The
wind blew steadily from the north, cold
and fierce. Mothers knit extra socks
and mittens for their children in. the
spring, and woodpiles that usually disap-
peared during the warm spell in front of
the houses We're speedily built up again.
Planting and shivering were done to-
gether, and the farmers who worked out
their taxes on the country roads wore
overcoats and mittens. In town in
| Vermont flock of sheep belonging to q
farmer had been sent as usual TO their
pasture. On the 18th of Juno heavy
snow fell in New England. The COLI
was intense.
A farmer who had a large field of corn
in Tewkbury built fires around it at
night to ward off the frost; many an
evening he and his neighbors took turns
watching them. He was rewarded l.ith
the only crop of corn in the neighbor-
hood. Considerable damage was done
in New Orleans in consequence. Of the
Fears were entertained that the sun was
cooling off, and throughout New Eng
land all picnics were strictly prohibited.
July was accompanied with snow and
ice. Indian corn was nearly all de-
etroyed; some favorably situated fields
escaped. August was more cheerless, if
possible, than the summer months
which preceded it. Ice was formed
half an inch in thickness. Indian corn
was so frozen that the greater part was
cut down and dried for fodder. Almost
every green thing was destroyed in this
country and in Europe. On the 30th
snow, fell at Barnet, forty miles from
London. Very little corn ripened in
New England and the Middle States
Farmers supplied themselves from corn
produced in 1915 for seed in the spring
of 1917. 1t sold at from 81 to $5 per
bushel.
September furnished about two weeks
OF the pleasantest weather of the sea-
son, but i'll the latter part Of the Month
ice formed an inch thick. October had
more than its share ot cold weather.
November was cold and snowy. Decem'
Der was comfortable, and the winter fol.
lowing was mild. Very little vegetation
was matured in the Eastern and Mid
die States. The suns rays seemed to be
destitute OF heat during the summer; all
nature was clad in sable hue; and men
exhibited no little anxiety concerning
the future of this life.
The average price Of -four during the
year in the New York market was $la
per barrel. The average price of wheat
in England was ilinety-seven sh!llings
per quarter Bread riots occurred
throughout Great Britain in 1917, in con
sequence OF the high price of the staff O.
life.-IBoston Congregationalist