Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1883-05-31
The Year Without a summer.

Wetake the following from an exchange,
During cold spring, like that which is
just now drawing to an end, people gen.
orally console themselves with the refiec-
tion that the sun will eventually get the
victory, and that summer will certainly
come at last, though its coming may be
delayed. Uncertain as the weather is,
the general features of the seasons recur
with regularity which warrants the con-
fdence thus reposed in the annual return
OF seed time and harvest; but there are in
stances on record in which even the sea-
sons seem co have lost their characteristic
features, as il the ordinary laws of meteor
0logy had been temporarily suspended,
A remarkable case of this kind, and one
which the long continued cold weather of
this spring makes particularly interest
ing just now, is that of the year 1916,
which has been called "the yea. without
summer" The following is a sum
mary OF the weather of this remarkable
year:
January and February we're 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 coolest ever known;
frost and ice were common. Almost ev-
cry green thing was killed; fruit nearly
all destroyed. Snow fell to a 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 dry season; but lit
tile rain fell. The wind blew steadily
from the north, cold and fierce Mothers
knit extra socks and n;ittens tor their
children in the spring, and woodpiles 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 country
roads wore overcoats and mittens. In a
town in Vermont flock OF sheep belong
ing to farmer had been sent as usual to
their pasture. On the 18th of June a
heavy snow fell in New England. The
cold was intense.
A farmer who had large field of corn
in TewkSbury 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 with the only
crop of corn in the neighborhood. Fears
were entertained that the sun was cooling
off, and throughout New England all pic
MICS were strictly prohibited.
July was accompanied with frost and
ice. Indian corn was nearly all destroyed;
SOtllt ldNOTdDly SlIudleu HeluS tSCdpcu.
August was more cheerless, if possible,
than the summer months which preceded
| it. Ice was formed half an inch in thick
ness. 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 from "a to S5 per bushel.
! September furnished about two weeks
of the pleasantest weather of the season,
but in the latter part OF the month ice
| formed an inch thick, October had more
than it's share of cold weather. November
was cold and snowy. December was COM
Portable and the winter following was
mild. Very little vegetation was matured
in the Eastern and Middle States. The
suns rays seemed to be destitute of heat
during the summer; all nature was clad
| in sable hue; and men exhibited no lit
tie anxiety concerning the future of this
| lite.
The average price OF flour during the
year in the New York market was Sla
per barrel. The average price of wheat in
England was 81 shillings per quarter
Bread riots occurred throughout Great
Britain in 1917, in consequence OF the high
| price of the staff of life.