Semi-weekly interior journal. [volume] (Stanford, Ky.) 1881-1905, 1883-05-29

summer win certainly come at last,
though its coming may DO delayed.
Uncertain as the weather is, the gen.
eral features Of the season recur with
q regularity which warrants the conf
dence thus reposed in the annual re-
turn Of seed time and harvest; but
there are Instances on record in which
one Of the seasons seem 10 have lost
their characteristic features. as IL the
ordipsry laws Of rneteorology had been
temporarily suspended. A remarka-
BILE Gaze Of this kind, and one which
the long continued cold weather OF
this spring makes particularly inter
esting just now, is that Of the year
1916 which has been called "the
year without summer" A commu.
nicatiou printed in the Congregational
ist 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 form
ed an inch thick in May, and fields
were planted over and over again till
il was too late To replant. June was
the coolest ever known in this lati-
tude; frost and ice were common. AL.
most every green thing was killed;
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 Massachu
setts. There were a few warm days.
IL was called the dry season. But
little rain fell. The wind blew stead
lily from the North. cold aud fierce.
Mothers knit extra socks and mittens
for their children in the spring. aud
woodpiles, that usually disappeared
during the warm spell, in front Of the
houses were speedily built up again.
Planting and sbivering we're done 10.
gether, and the farmers who worked
out their taxes on the country roads
wore overcoats and mittens. In a town
in Vermont a flock Of sheep belong
ing 10 a farmer had been sent as usual
to the pasture. On the 18th Of June
a heavy snow storm fell in New Eng.
land. The cold was intense.
A farmer who had large field Of
corn in Tewksbury built fires around
it at night to ward of the frost. Ma
ny an evening he and his neighbOrs
took turns watching them. He was
rewarded with the only crop Of corn
in the neighbOrhood. Considerable
damage was done in New Orleans in
consequences Of the rapid rise of the
Mississippi River. Fears were enter
tanned that the sun was cooling of,
and throughout New England all pic
mics were strictly prohibited.
July was accompanied with frost aud
ice. Indian corn was nearly all de-
stroyed; some favorably situated fields
escaped. August was more cherries,
If possible, than the summer months
which preceded il. Ice was formed
halt an inch in thickness. Indian
corn was so frozen that the greater
part was cut down aud dried for fod-
der. Almost every green thing was
destroyed in this country and in Eu'
rope. On the 3Oth snow fell at Bar
net, 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 the spring of 1917.
II sold at from 81 to 50 per bushel.
September furnished about two
weeks of the pleasantest weather Of
the season. but in the latter part of
the month ice fhrmed an inch thick.
October had more than its share Of
cold weather. November was cold
and snowy. December was comfort.
able, and the winter following was
mild. Very little vegetation was ma.
tured in the Eastern and Middle
States. The suns rays seemed to be
destitute of heat during the summer;
all nature was clad in a sable hue. and
men exhibited no little anxiety con.
corning the future Of this Ii fe.
The average price OF -four during
the year in the New York market was
Sl3 per barrel. The average price Of
wheat in England was ninety seven
shillings per quarter. Bread riots oc.
Cured throughout Great Britain in
1917, in consequence Of the high
price Of the staff Of life.-[New York
Sun.