The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-06-09
e NotabIeYaar.

e Notable Year.
During a 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 certainly come at last,
though its coming may be delayed.
Uncertain as the weather is, the gen.
eral features of the seasons recur with
a regularity which warrants the con-
1dence 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 had
been temporarily suspended. A re-
markable case of this kind, and one
which the long continued cold wealth.
er OF this spring makes particularly
interesting just now, is that of the
year 1916, which has been called "the
year without summer. A commu-
nlcatlon printed in the Congregation
dtist 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 it was too late to replant. June
was the coolest eyer known in this
latitude frost and ice were common.
Almost every green thing was killed.
fruit nearly all destroyed. Snow fel!
to the depth Of 10 inches in Vermont, 7
in Maine, 4 in the interior of New
York, and also in Massachusetts.
There werea few warm days. 1t was
called a 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 wood
piles that usually disappeared during
the warm spell in front of the houses
were speedily built up again. Plant
ing and shivering were done to-
gether, and the farmers who worked
out their taxes on the county roads
wore overcoats and mittens. In a
town in Vermont flock of sheep be-
longing to farmer had been sent as
usual to their pasture. On the 18th
of June a heaYey snow fell in Eng
land. The cold was intense.
A farmer who had a large field OF
corn in Tewksbury built fires around
1t at night to ward off the frost many
an evening he and his neighbors took
turns watching them. He was re-
warded with the only crop of corn in
the neighborhood. Considerable dam
age was done in New Orleans in con-
sequence of the rapid rise in the Mis-.
slSsippi river. Fears were entertain
ed that the sun was cooling off, and
throughout New England all picnics
were strictly prohibited.
July was accompanied by frost and
ice. Indian corn was nearly all des.
troyed; some fav0rably situated
fields escaped. August was more
cherries, if possible, than the sum-
mer months which prec eded it. Ice
was formed haitian inch in thickness
Indian corn was so frozen that the
greater part was cut down ana dried
for fodder. Almost every green
thing was destroyed in this country
and in Europe, On the Both snow
fell at Barnet, forty miles from Lon
don. Very little corn ripened in
New England and the middle States,
Farmers supplied themseIyes from
corn produced in 1915 for seed in the
spring of 1917. 1t sold at from 81 to
IS per bushel.
September furnished about two
weeks of the pleasantest " Gather cf
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 comfort
able and the weather following was
mild. Very little vegetation was
nurtured 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
concerning 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
1877, in consequence of the high price
of the staff of life