Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-09
DROUTH-SWEPT VALLEY
The Terrible Rain!ess Season in the Ohio
Valley.
Steamboats, Forced to Suspend Their
Trips-The Streams, Wells and
Springs Run Dry.


the Ohio valley. My field of observation
las been mainly confined to four or five
counties In the extreme southern part of
Ohio, but with occasional trips into West
Virginia and Kentucky, one occasion
extending through the blue grass region
nearly to Louisville. Various localities
have had their own peculiar experiences.
but in general the same conditions have
prevailed over the whole region.
The only considerable rainfall of the
whole season, beginning as far back as
February, to speak like a Hibernian, was
a snowstorm. 1 had good reason to re-
member the date, being out from early
morning till o'clock, when full foot still
lay on the ground, and 1 know not how
many inches had mingled with the mud
through which our horses foundered. After
that there was warm and then fairly hot
weather, and spring, which had been de-
layed, came on with bound. The latter
Fart of April summer temperature was
reached. Vegetation was we'll advanced.
Farmers were blowing their corn and po-
tatoes Apples large as small marbles had
replaced the bloom, SO dense often that you
could not see through it. For two weeks
the thermometer had registered 80 in the
middle of the day; then there was return
OF winter. Out on high ridge an arctic
wind suddenly smote me, clad in confident
innocence aid summer suit, and chilled
me to the bone in five minutes. Next day
there was a lively splitting of snowflakes.
All through the country people had taken
down their stoves, and the next ten days
were memorable ones. Corn and potatoes
were, of course cut to the ground and
many thought the wheat was ruined
The Drouth Begins.
The trees looked as though they had been
burned over. Small hope remained for the
apple crop, and the few peaches which had
survived the pessimistic reports of the farm
ers and newspapers retired. The corn
promptly recovered, and potatoes generally
did, but the drouth now begun to be severely
felt. By the first of June farmers were full
of gloomy foreborings. There was not going
to be a half wheat crop. Unless rain came
right off there would be no corn at ALL 1t
did curl up during the heat of the day, but
always came out fresh in the morning.
Riding about as did, could see that it was
growing. Wheat, too, though undeniably
short in straw, was fairly thick, and the
heads were long and filled to the tips with
beautiful clean, large berries. AS a matter
of fact. many fields along the river bottom
turned off thirty bushels per acre, and the
crop through my district appears to have
been good average, and the corn proved to
be the best in years. On the high ridges,
especially on worn land, the crop was very
light or an entire failure, but on bottom
lands it was very heavy and of the finest
possible quality. Potatoes, oats and hay
were everywhere very I1Snl, ara IN many
cases not worth harvesting. The apple crop
is the largest ever known. Along the roads
they rolled down into the bitches, barrels of
them together, and were left to rot. In
many places 1 literally drove over apples,
Sheep, hogs and other stock were turned in
to the orchards, but could hardly consume
the windfalls: These could have been bought
at any price, or no price, and many thous-
ands of barrels were allowed to rot. Hay,
oats and potatoes, it may be said, were a
general failure,
Hot as Well ns Dry.
From the first of June to the last of Sep
TENDER the weather was frightfully hot
Occasionally there was slight relief for a
day or two, but the heat returned with an
added fervor. The weather clerk apparently
lad only stopped to spit on his hands. In
the very last week of September the ther-
mometer was up to 9S, and it was an excep-
ton when 1t did not go to 81 or %. Taking
the four months together. it was by far the
hottest period in my experience, which in
cludes several summers in the south. In
June the dust had become annoying; in July
it was terrible nuisance; in August 1t
reached its malignant climax but'it MAIN
tanned a perniciOuS activity during the fol-
lowing month. In driving 1 was often UNI
able to see my way or tell whether 1 was
not running into some team before me. 1t
was like steamer in a dense fog.
From early spring there was not single
general rain to wet the soil to the depth of
an inch. There were local showers at rare
intervals, very limited in area. 1 crossed
the track of three such storms in one day
The rain came down with a rush these
times, but was over in few minutes.
Sometimes they extended over wider areas
and were what we called mice showers"
but the whole region was so parched and
the temperature was SO high that in day
or two you could not have told that such
things had been to overcome us like a
summer cloud" Again and again 1 found
myself apparently between two showers,
but not drop fell on me. Over and over
1t cloIded up and the storm seemed to
move up over me and then to be dissipated.
People commonly said, 1.-The showers have
all been going round us all summer" or,
they had good rain north of us or south
of us yesterday. but we didn't get drop"
had chance very often to test these ,e-
ports. and generally found them erroneous.
There was hardly locality which I visited
which did not consider itself an exceptional
sufferer. My observation was that showers
were little more frequent and copious
near the river, but otherwise there was
little Partially in the very sparing distri-
button.
Phenomena of DrOuth.
The phenomena as the drouth progressed
were noteworthy. In the early spring the
horses sometimes went over their knees in
the mortar-like clay. On red clay hills the
wheels carried up the sticky mass till they
this time little runs of clear water crossed
the roads everywhere, and springs gushed
out from every bank. By and by these dis
appeared, and later the larger brooks, and
finally creeks of considerable size became
merely series of disconnected, stagnant
pools Watering troughs fed by springs
from the hill above, one after another
went dry.
In some cases these were supplied from
wells with pumps, but these also became as
useless as the others. During the last two
months I frequently had to drive a half
day in the dust and heat without watering
my horse. The beautiful green of the hill
faded into brown. Nothing but coarse
weeds was left in the pastures or along the
road. The dust covered these until you
could hardly distinguish the species. Stock
ate the broom sage" pestilent weed, for
which no use had heretofore been found,
and which farmers had found almost i'm
possible to eradicate.
The river men chung to their traditional
belief in a June RISE to the last. On the
next Sunday before the last 1 heard the
captain of one of the larger boats assuring
a lady passenger that there would be an
excursion to Pomeroy the following Sum
day, because there had always been a
June rise" Not a drop of water fell in
the whole valley, so far as I could hear,
and the boat never made another trip
Then the smaller boats one by one tied up
till nothing was left to turn wheel but