Middletown transcript., 1907-06-22
A YEAR WITHOUT A SUMNER
The Cold of 1915 ExceIIed the ChiIIiness
- of This Year

The Cold of 1915 ExceIled the ChiIliness
of This Year
She unusually chilly spring of this year
recalls other unreasonable season. Of
the past. The year OF 1916, the so-called
year without summer" seems to have
made the record in this direction. In
lfhat year there was freezing weather
every month, and nothing but the most
hardy crops could be matured. The
winter Of that year was not remarkable.
and the month of April began with rather
warm weather, but grew colder as the
month advanced, and ended with much
snow and ice all over New England and
the Middle States. May was repetition
OF April, with ice half an inch thick and
corn entirely frozen June afforded no
relief, but had several visitations of ice
and snow with almost every green thing
killed. There was nearly foot of snow
IN Vermont, and quite snowfall also as
far south as Massachusetts. Even july
had times of frost and ice and still water
froze over oss several occasions. Corn
which had been replanted and secured a
new start was killed back again, except
in very sheltered and particularly favor
able localities.
A letter written in July of that year by
Josiah Goddard, of Caledonia, N. Y, has
recently come to light. THIS farmer
was New Englander. born, and wrote
the following account to friends in Massa-
chusetts:
The season, which has been unusually
cold and dry, has produced gloomy
prospect. Our corn, some of it, has been
cut down three times and great part of
It is now entirely dead by the frost. One
OF my neighbors has of late piowed up 10
or II acres Which he planted and hoed
once; another has IL acres which he once
lioed, and it is mostly dead and another
will not have one bushel. But very few
fields have escaped the frozen destruction
and those the drouth and cold weather
have SO far checked that it will not much
OF 1t come to much. The prospect of
wheat in the spring was very promising,
but the frost has almost destroyed some,
the dry weather others, the early sown,
if it is not shrunk (as we have reason to
fear J, bids fair, at least some OF it, to be
tolerable crop
Our meadows, which last year waved
the heavy burden, are now so thin and
dry that they can scarcely be moved.
And some do not pretend to NOW. They
are so dry, many of them, that it has
been difficult to prevent. the fires which
have broken out from raging through
them, and some we could not prevent.
I have worked all night at. putting out
fires to prevent 1t from running through
my moving. Our gardens are almost
entirely destitute of any kind of sauce.
Finally, the present season is almost
complete contrast to the last, when every
thing was green aud fourishing. II the
wheat should meet with blast | know
not what the people would do, for there
is an unusuAly scarcity of grain in all this
part of the country, caused in part by the
almost innumerable emigrants from the
Eastern States and partly from the expor-
tation across the lakes into Canada.
81 have not heard particularly how it
is in New England, but I understood when
at Meadyille that the frost had damaged
the grain as far as the Ohio river and de-
stroyed the fruit. We are informed by
gentleman direct from Vermont that
about the eighth or ninth of June the
snow fell there FIVE inches deop, and the
next day the wind blew it into drifts, in
some places two feet deep. and that water
froze SO hard that it bore man. Itfroze
water here one-eighth of an inch about
the same time. And, indeed, It has been
so cold this day that it has been uncom-
Portable to walk around without great
coat. It Is generally thought the planet
or comet between US and the sun has
caused the cold, If not the drouth. It is
the united testimony of all men among US
that they never saw the like before
The above letter was written the mid
die Of July. In August there was hard
freeze. with ice half an inch thick. and
what little corn had survived was frozen
and had to be cut at once. There was
no corn raised, only a light
crop Of damaged fodder, and seed corn for
the following year sold at $3 to S. a
bushel. September was very much like
the preceding months, With plenty Of cold
weather and ice, and there was severe
weather in October and November. No
month Of the year was without weather
for vegetable growth. The
cause Of this remarkable season was never
explained.