The Warner sun. (Warner, Brown Co., Dakota [S.D.]) 1885-1???, 1886-10-22
The Year without a Summer.

logical conditions were concerned, was
the Annus Mirabilis OF the nineteenth
century, and was known throughout
the United States and Europe as the
coolest ever experienced. 1t is beyond
the recollection Of any person now
living. The following is a brief alb
stract Of the weather during each
month of that year:
January was mild, so muchso as to
render fires needless in parlors.
February was not cold; with the ex-
ception of a few days it was much like
its predecessor.
March was cold and boisterous dur
ing the early part OF the month; the
remainder was mild. A great freshet
occurred on the Ohio and Kentucky
rivers, which caused a great loss Of
property.
April began warm, but grew colder
as the month advanced, and ended
with now and a temperature more
like winter than spring.
May was more favorable for frowns
than smiles. Buds and fruits were
frozen; ice formed an inch thick; corn
killed, and fields again and again re-
planted, until deemed too late.
June was the coolest ever known in
this latitude; frost ice and snow were
common. 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 Mas
sachusetts. 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 pas
sable only in boots. GA few
warm days" How eagerly did all
classes look for them in that memora-
BILE cold time seventy summers ago!
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 we're done together,
"bo CAAO q lIlCID VIM WI OuI OllOlL
taxes on the country roads wore
overcoats ond mittens. In q town in
Vermont, a flock OF sheep belonging
to a farmer had been sent, as usual,
to their pasture. On the 18th of
June a heavy snow fell, the cold was
intense, and the owner started away
to look for his sheep. "Better start
the neighbors after me soon, wife," be
said in jest, before leaving; ''being the
middle of June l might 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 in 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 third day
did they find him. He was on the side
OF a hill, with both feet frozen, unable
to move. Afarmer who had a large
field of corn In Tewkesbury near Low
ell, built fires around it at night to
ward off the frost. Many an evening
he and his men took turns in watch
ing them. He was rewarded with the
only crop Of corn in the neighborhood.
Fears that the sun was cooling off
abounded, and all picnics were strictly
prohibited.
July was accompanied with frost
and ice. On the fifth ice vas formed oil
the thickness ofcommon windowglass
throughout New England, New York
and some parts OF Pennsylvania.
Indian corn was nearly DESTROYED;
mefavorably situated fields escaped.
This was true OF some of theh hill farms
In Massachusetts.
August was more cherries, if that
were possible, than the summer months
already passed. Ice was formed hall
an inch in thickness. Indian corr was
80 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
Both snow fell at Barnet, forty miles
from London. Papers received from
England state that it would be re
membered by the present generation
that the year 1915 was a year ir
which there vas 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 1917
1t sold at from four to five dollars pei
: bushel.
September furnished about two
weeks Of the mildest weather OF tn.
season. Soon after the middle, it be
came cold and frosty; ice formed &
quarter OF an inch in thickness.
. October produced more than it.
share Of cold weather; frost and ic,
: were common. The summer and au
tumn Of 1919, cold, rainy and ungen
1 ial throughout Europe, was peculiar
3 ly 20 in France. Constant rain fel
during the months Of July, Angus
and September. Butfor an abundani