The Osceola times., 1883-06-16
THE YEAR WITHOUT A SUMNER.
Story of the Phenomenal Weather that
Followed a Cold spring In 1916.

n. Y. sun.
During a cold spring people generally
console themselves with the reflection
that the sun will eventually get the vic
tory, 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 a regularity which warrants the
confidence thus reposed in the annual
return of seed time and harvest but
there instances on record in which, even
the seasons seem to have lost their char
acteristic features, as If the ordinary
laws of meteorology had been Temporal
rily suspended. A remarkable case of
this kind, and one which the long con-
tinued cold weather Of this spring makes
particularly interesting just now, is that
of the year 1916, which has been called
"the year without a summer" A COM
munication printed in the Congrega-
tionalist 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 we're plant
ed over and over again till it was too
late to replant. June was the coolest
ever known in this latitude; frost and
ice were common. Although 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 a dry
season. But little rain fell The wind
blew steadily from the north, cold and
fierce. Mothers knit extra socks and
mittehs 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 to-
gether, and the farmers who worked out
their taxes on the county roads wore
overcoats and mittens. In town in
Vermont flock Of sheep belonging 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 - neighbors took turns
watching them. He was rewarded with
the only crop of corn in the neighbor-
hood. Considerable damage was done
in New Orleans in consequence of the
rapid rise in the Mississippi River.
Fears were entertained that the sun was
cooling off, and throughout New Eng
land all picnics were strictly forbidden.
July was accompanied with frost and
ice. Indian corn was nearly all destroy
ed some favorably situated fields escap-
ed. August was more cheerless, ifpossi-
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 doyn
and used for fodder. Almost every
green thing was destroyed in this coun-
try 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 sup
piled themselves from corn produced in
1915 for seed in the spring of 1917. 1t
sold at from four TO five dollars a bush
| ell.
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, Decem-
Der was comfortable and the winter fol-
lowing was mild. Very little vegetation
was matured in the Eastern and Middle
States. The suns rays seemed to be des-
titute of heat, during the summer; all
nature was clad in sable hue and men
exhibited no little anxiety concerning
the future of this life.
The average price of flour during the
year in the New York market was thir-
teen dollars per barrel The average
price of wheat in England was ninety
seven shillings per quarter. Bread riots
occurred throughout Great Britain in
1917, in consequence of the high price of