The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1895-10-23
PENNSYLVANIA PARcHED.
Record-Breaking Drought of 1895.

Record-Breaking Drought Of 1895.
The year 1895 is record breaker in
drought annals. Somerset county has
the state, but even here il is very dry and
from every section comes complaint of
the scarcity of water. One correspon-
dent writing from the north of the county
says ''the question of securing sufficient
water to supply stock has become alarm
ing, many springs and wells that hereto
fore never failed are completely exhaust
ed and if the drought continues for an
other week stock in many places will
I perish from want of water"
| In Western Pennsylvania the total de-
/ fieiency i'm rainfall since the beginning of
/ the year has been 9.03 inches. Since
| April 20 there has been no coal stage in
/ the Monongahela river. Not bushel Of
I coal has passed south since that month,
and 5000 miners in the river pits have
been idle almost the entire period. There
is little prospect of a coal stage in the riv-
ers until the winter rise. All the boats
and barges are loaded and 20,O00,cOO
bushels of coal have been waiting three
months for higher water on which to go
south. Cincinnati, Louisville, Memphis
and all other river cities are beginning to
experience higher coal prices owing to
the inability of dealers TO lay in stock.
Along the Monongahela river the rainfall
during September was but half an inch.
The Ohio river is so low at East Liv-
erpool that the infiuent pipes are bare
and the supply is scarcely sufficient to
supply domestic needs of the town, and
some of the industries are Obliged to shut
down.
The following from the Philadelphia
Times gives an idea of the situation in
Central and Eastern Pennsylvania,
where the drought is even worse than
west of the mountains:
The long-continued dry spell, brought
about by an almost entire absence of rain
storms since early in July, has introduce
ed water famine throughout the state of
an unprecedented character and extent.
Every section is directly affected and in a
number of populous centres the situation
is of the most serious nature. This con-
dition has prevailed in the coal regions
the past month and in the farming coun-
try supplies are obtained miles away for
cattle and household purposes.
The present drouth is record-breaker.
The summer of the year 1869 was equally
rainless and covered a wide stretch OTTER
ritory, but the reserve forest area pre-
vented the type of distress that exists to-
day and springs and creeks were running
then that return nothing now. The riv-
ers of the state are now showing the low
water mark of that year side by side with
things never seen before. In the city of
Altoona the supply has been restricted to
four hours day and to this the relief
trains that transport $4,000 gallons of
water from Holiidaysburg every q hours
must he credited as separate item. The
Juniata valley is like a desert waste, the
farmers carting water in barrels from
points five miles away, and in Berks, Le-
high, Lancaster and Bucks counties the
situation is even more alarming. The
reservoirs of the towns are as dry as the
streams and water has become an article
of sale from house to house. In Schuyl-
kill, Columbia, Luzerne and Northum-
berland, the coal region sections have be-
come accustomed to drought experience,
but nothing like the present one marks
the records of the past.