Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1883-06-08
The Year Without a Summer.
THE STORY OF TIE PHENOMENAL
WEATHER FOLLOWED A COLD
SPRING IN 1916.

During cold spring, like that which is
just now drawing to an cid, people gen
orally console themselves with the refec
ton that the sun will eventually get the
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 confidence
thus reposed in the 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 ordinary laws of meteorology haG
been temporarily suspended. A remark
able case of this kind, and one which the
long continued cold weather of this spring
makes particularly interesting just now
is that of the year 1916. which has beer
called ''the year without summer" A
communication printed in the Conqrega
taonalist gives the following summary of
the weather of this remarkable year:
January and February were mild
IVA al Cll wac COlu AplI UCSdu wal UuU
ended In snow and ice. Ice formed an inch
thick in May, and fields were planted ovel
and over again till it was too late to re
plant. June was the coolest ever known
in this latitude frost and ice we're COM
mon. Almost 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 Massachusetts,. There were a
few warm days. 1t was called dry sea-
son. 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 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
ging to farmer had been sent as usual to
their pasture. On the 18th of June a
heavy snow fell 10 New England. The
cold was intense.
A farmer " no had a 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. lie was rewarded with the only
crop of corn in the neighborhood. Con-
siderable damage was done in New Orleans
in consequence of the rapid rise of the
Mississippi River. Fears were entertained
that the sun was cooling off, and through
out New England all picnics were strictly
prohibited.
July was accompanied with frost and
ice. Indian corn was nearly all destroyed:
some favorably situated fields csc aped.
August was more cherries, 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 3Oth snow fell at Barnet, forty
miles from London. Very little corn ri
pened 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 SIS 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 Its
share of cold weather. November was
cold and snowy. December was comfor-
table 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 little anxiety
the future of this life.
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 81 shillings per quarter.
Bread riots occurred throughout Great
Britain in 1917, in consequence of the
high price Of the staff of life.