Morning journal and courier., 1884-09-12
A Year Without A Summer.

The year 1916 was known throughout the United States and Europe as the coldest ever experienced by any person then living Very few persons now living can recollect it. The following is a brief summary of the weather during each month of that year: January was mild so as to render fires almost useless in parlors. February was not cold; with the exception of few days, it was like its pre- decessor March was cold and boisterous during the early part of the month; the fe- mainder of the month was mild. A great freshet occurred on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers which caused much loss of property April began warm but grew colder as the month advanced, and ended with snow and ice and temperature more like winter than spring. May was more remarkable for frowns than smiles. Buds and fruits were frozen; ice formed half an inch thick; corn was killed, corn fields were again and again replanted until deemed too late.
 June was the coldest ever known in this latitude; frost and ice were common. Almost every green thing was killed; fruit nearly all destroyed. Snow fell to the depth of 10 inches in Vermont, seven in Maine, three Ill the interior of New York and also in Massa- chusetts There were few warm days. All classes looked for them in that memorable cold summer 6S years ago. It was called & 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. Planting and shivering were done to- gether, and the farmers who worked out their taxes on the country roads wore over coats and mittens. In town in Vermont a flock of sheep belonging to farmer had been sent, as usual, to their pasture. On June 1l heavy snow fell; the cold was intense, and the owner started away at noon to look for his sheep. Better start the neighbors soon, wife" he said in jest before leaving; "being in the middle of June I may get lost in the snow" Night came, the storm increased and he did not return. The next morning the family sent out for help and started 1n search One after another of the neighbors turned out to look for the missing man. The snow had covered up all tracks, and not until the end of the third day did they find him on the side of hill, with both feet frozen, unable to move A farmer who had large field of corn in Tewksbury built fires around it to ward off the frost; many an evening he and his men took turns watching it. He was re- warded with the only crop of corn in the neiphborhood Considerable damage was done in New Orleans in consequence of the rapid rise of the Mississippi river the suburbs were covered with water and the roads were passable only in boats. Fears that the sun was cooling off abounded, and throughout New England all picnics were strictly pro- hibited.
 July was accompanied with frost and ice. On the 9th ice was formed of the thickness of common window glass throughout New England, New York and some parts of Pennsylvania Indian corn was nearly all destroyed; some favorably situated fields es- caped This was true of some of the hill farms of Massachusetts. August was more cheerless, if possible, 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 down and dried for fodder. Almost every green thing was destroyed in this country and in Europe On the 30th snow fell at Barnet, 40 miles from London Papers received from England stated "that it would be remembered by the present generation that the year 1916 was 8 year in which there was no summer" 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 1877. It sold at from four to five dollars per bushel.
 September furnished about two weeks of the mildest weather of the season. Soon after the middle, it became cold and frosty; ice formed a quarter of an inch in thickness. October produced more than it's share of cold weather; frost and ice were common. The summer and autumn of 1916, cold, rainy and uncongenial throughout Europe, were pc culiarly so in France. Constant rains fell during the months of July, August and Sep temper. bu6 TOT all aDunQant pOCaUO crop, famine, with all it's horrors, would have been her lot The minister of the interior estab- lished granaries throughout the kingdom, where corn was sold to the destitute at re- duced price Prices rose, however, to more than double, and hundreds perished of actual want. November was cold and clustering; snow fell so to make good sleighing. De cember was mild and comfortable.
 The above is brief summary of the cold summer of 1916, as it was called, in order to distinguish it from the winter The winter was mild. Frost and ice were common in every month of the year. Very little vegeta- ton matured in the Eastern and Middle States. The suns rays seemed to be desti- ute 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 flour during the year in the New York market was SIS per barrel The average price of wheat in Eng, land was 97 shi11ings per quarter Bread riots occurred throughout Great Britain Tn 1877, in consequence of the high price of the afa aff of 1ifn