Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1907-06-28
The Cold Summer of1efe.

The Cold Sum mer of1616.
April came in warm, but as the days
grew longer the AIR became colder, and
by May / there was a temperature
like that of winter, with plenty of snow
and ice. In May the young buds were
frozen dead, ice formed half an inch
thick on ponds and rivers, corn was
killed, and the corn fields were planted
again and again, until it became too late
to raise crop. By the last of May in
this climate the leaves are usually in
leaf, and birds and flowers are plenti-
full. When the last of May arrived in
1916 everything had been killed by the
cold.
June was the coolest month of roses
ever experienced in this latitude. Frost
and ice were as common as buttercups
usually are. Almost everything green
was killed; all fruit was destroyed.
Snow fell 10 inches deep in Vermont.
There was a finch snow fall in Maine.
3-ipch fall i'll the interior of New
York State; the same in Massachusetts.
There were only few moderately
warm days. Everybody looked, longed
and waited for warm weother, but
also dry; very little rain fell. All sum-
mer long the wind blew steadily from
the north in blasts laden with snow
and ice. Mothers knit socks of double
thickness for their children and made
thick mittens. Planting and shivering
were done together, and the farmers
who worked out their taxes on the
country roads wore overcoats and nit
tens. On June II, there was heavy
fall of snow. A Vermont farmer sent
flock of sheep to pasture on June 16.
The morning of the 18th dawned with
the thermometer below the freezing
point At about 8 o'clock in the morn
ing the owner of the sheep started to
look up his flock. Before leaving home
he turned to his wife and said jokingly
Better start the neighbors soon; it is
the middle of June and l may get lost
in the snow"
An hour after he left home terrible
snow storm came up. The snow fell
thick and fast, and as there was SO
much wind, the fieecy masses piled up
in great drifts along the windward side
of the fences and out buildings. Night
came and the farmer had not been
heard of. His wife became frightened
and alarmed the neighborhood. All the
neighbors joined the searching party.
On the third day they found him. He
was lying in hollow on a side hill, with
both feet frozen; he was half covered
with snow, but alive. Most of the sheep
were lost
A farmer near Tewksbury, VT, owned
large field of corn. He built fires
around the field to keep off the frost.
Nearly every night he and his men took
turns in keeping up the fires and watch
ing that the corn did not freeze. The
farmer was rewarded for his tireless la.
bors by having the only crop of corn in
the region.
July came in with ice and snow. On
the Fourth Of July ice as thick as win
dow glass formed through New England,
New York, and in some parts of the
State of Pennsylvania. Indian corn,
which in some parts Of the east had
struggled through May and June, gave
up, froze, and died.
To the surprise of everybody, August
proved the worst month of all. Almost
every green thing in this country and
Europe was blasted by frost. Snow fell
in Barnett, 20 miles from London, Eng
on August 80. Newspapers received
from England stated that 1915 would be
remembered by the existing generation
as the year in which there was no sum-
mer; very little corn ripened in New
England. There was great privation,
and thousands of persons would have
persisted in this country had it not been
for the abundance of fish and wild
game.