The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1883-05-31
will This be Repeated

During cold spring, like that which
Is just now drawing to an end, people
generally console themselves with the re.
lection that the sun will eventually get
the victory, and that summer will Ger.
tainly come at last though its coming
may be delayed. Uncertain az the
weather is the general features of the
season recur with regularity which
warrants the confidence thus reposed in
annual return of seed time and harvest ::
but there are instances on record in
which even the seasons seem to have lost
their characteristic features, as if the or.
binary laws of meteorology had been
temporarily supended. A remarkable
case of this kind, and one which the long
continued cold weather of this spring
makes particularly interesting Just now,
'ls that of the year 1916, which has been
called the year without summer" A
communication printed in the Con2reqa.
tionahst 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 plant.
ed over an over again till it was too late
to replant. June was the coldest ever
known in this latitude; frost and ice were
common: Almost every green thing was
killed; fruit nearly all destroyed. Snow
fell to the depth of ten inches in Yer
mont, seven in Maine, three in the inte.
rlor of New York, and also in Massachu-
sets. There were few warm days. It
was called dry season. The wind blew
steadily from the north, cold and fierce.
Mothers knit extra socks and mittens for
their children in the spring, and wood
piles that usually disappeared during the
warm spell in front of the houses were
speedily built up again. Planting and
shivering were done together, and the
farmers who worked out their taxes on
the county roadslwore oyerconts and nit
tens. In town in Vermont flock of
sheep belonging to farmer had been
sent as usual to their pasture. On the
18th of June heavy snow fell in New
England. The cold was intense.
A farmer who had large field of corn
in Tewsbu1y built fires around it ut night
to ward of the frost; many an evening
he and his neighbors took turns watch.
ing them. He was rewarded with the
only crop OF corn in the neighborhood.
Considerable damage was done in New
Orleans in consequence Of the rapid rise
of the Mississippi river. Fears were en-
tertsined that the sun was cooling off and
throughout New England all pic-nics
were strictly prohibited.
July was accompanied with frost and
ice. Indian corn was nearly all destro, .
ed; some favorably situated fields escap-
ed. August WAS more cherries, if posi-.
BILE, 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 eyery
green thing was destroyed in this coun
try and in Europe. On the 3Oth snow
fell at Barnett, forty miles from London.
Very little corn ripened in New England
and the Middle States. Farmers sup
piled themselves from corn produced in
1915 for seed in tho spring of 1917. 1t
sold at from 81 to SIS per bushel.