Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1888-11-30
An Excessive Rainfall.

A record Of the amount Of rainfall in
this locality for the past three months would
probably show a greater quantity of rain
than has often fallen in the same length of
time since we have any records. We have,
of course, no means of ascertaining how
much rain fell when this state and most of
the adjoining territory was an unbroken
forest, but the earliest records that we
have show that there were drouths when
the country was first settled, as severe and
occurring as frequently as they are likely
to occur in the future. The theory that a
forest cools the atmosphere and thereby
promotes the condensation of moisture into
rain may be true in an ininitesimal degree,
but is probably not true to such an extent
as to have an appreciable effect on the guam
tity of rain. At the height at which the
condensation takes place, it is doubtful
whether the forest makes a difference of
single degree in temperature.
Concerning drouths in the early history
of the country, Mr.. j. d. Lyman of Exc
ter, n. H., says in late number of the
Boston Cultivator
plymouth Colony, Mass, was settled on
the easterly side of what l take to be the
largest forest on the globe at the time, and
again, close by the Atlantic ocean. Ac
cording to modern theory, how it should
have rained upon the poorly housed heads
Of our Pilgrim fathers and mothers What
were the facts The first fast which was
recorded in Plymouth Colony was held to
pray for rain | give list herewith of the
drouths the colony endured, as also a list
of the subsequent drouths in the same sec
ton of the country, as published in early
records and subsequent papers. Recorded
as above, | find the number of successive
days without rain in the year 1921 to have
been n in the summer of 1880 there were
Al successive days without rain; in the
summer of 1857, - DAYS in 1862 80 days /;
in 1874 40 days in 1880. 81 days in 1894,
% days in 1905, 40 days in l715, 40
days in l12S, 81 days; in 1870, 80 days
in 1141, - days in 1749, 10S days; in
1888, AZ days all successive days without
rain. In the summer of 1862 we have a
remarkable record of 1913 successive days
without rain in fact there was no rain
from the first of MAY to the first of Sep
TENDER, and many were obliged to send TO
England to import from that country their
ouPPiiSS VI nay anu gram 10 SUSTAIN me
In the summer of 1901 there were 30 sue
cessive days without rain in 1902, % days /;
in 1912, % days; in 1856, "a days in 1871,
10 days in 1875, 26 days and in the sum
mer of 1876 we have record of - sue
cessive days without rain These facts are
certainly very suggestive, and perhaps as
reliable as the fanciful theories evolved in
the brains of weather and forestry scien
lists"
When we were passing through a series
of extremely dry seasons, occurring in sue
cession and exceeding in the severity of the
drouth the average record for great mum
Der of years, and when we were told by
scientific writer's that it was all on account
of the "denuded forests" which must be
restored to save the country from parching
up and becoming desert, we predicted the
recurrence of years when farmers would
again complain of the opposite extreme, or
excessive moisture and the prediction,
made without regard to the forest, has
proved true