St. Tammany farmer. [volume] (Covington, La.) 1874-current, 1912-04-27
HA|[STORM
|BEATSRECORD
Old Story of '.Size of a Hens
Egg" Becomes Authentic.
Seems to be Verified by the
Experiences of Saturday.
Hail Covered the Ground
Three to Four Inches.
-lorses and Cattle Share in
the General Discomfort.

| Constant rain has so discourage,
outside work that lounging in th'
house has become excusable. Abou
o'clock Saturday evening thos'
indorrs become alarmed at a roar
ing, pounding sound on the roof tha
sounded as if the coal man was de
livering coal on top Of the house in
stead Of in the yard, and those out
side thought crushed ice factory
had exploded and was coming dowr
on their heads. People outside rush
ed for shelter ana those inside at.
| teripted to save their window panes
by closing the blinds, receiving bruis.
ed hands and bumped heads for thei,
trouble. There was about twenty.
ike minutes of excitement, after
watch citizens gazei into yards cover
ed from four to six inches deep with
vartous.shaped Jumps of ice. some
white, some clear and some almost
like frozen snow, weighing in some
instances two ounces, and varying In
size according to the earnest dcclara-
ton of church members, up to az
big as your fist. Beautiful flower
gardens were shorn of their beauty
and looked as II the cattle had been
turned into them. Leaves beaten
from the trees strewed the sidewalks
until they looked green os the lawns
and the feet sank into them like soft
cushions as one walked along. The
Oldest inhabitant hung his head in
shame and acknowledged that he had
never seen anything like 1t before
adding that it was pretty near az
bad in 1887
Goodbee again seems to have suf-
fered most from the hail, as it had
from the storm few days previous.
ly. The gardens there were COM
pletely ruined, as were many of the
gardens in Covington. depending up
on the varying disposition Of the
storm. which was freakish, being es-
pecially spiteful in some places. Mr..
Meyers, near Goodbee, says that two
oxen were knocked down in the cow
lot, and young man riding horse
back was knocked from his horse.
A young lady in q hired conveyance
near Abita Springs was frightened
into fainting spell and the driver
had to manage both her and the
frightened horse which refused to be-
lieve that he was not being pelted
to make him go faster. Cattle put
their tails in the air and forgot that
it was milking time or that they had
young calves in the pen, while they
made the speed limit through the
woods. Birds were terror stricken
and the rooster failed to call the
hens to q feast of hailstones.
On the fans surrounding Coving-
ton and Abita more or less damage
was done. Some places escaped with
little less, while others had early
truck completely ruined. Mrs.
Minke, on the Arch Cook place, lost
none of her beautiful field of po-
tatoes,- while Mr.. Daring, ON the
Garland tract, may suffer loss of
$500. Mr.. Alexius, near Coving-
ton, lost his entire bean crop, almost
ready to gather, worth probably
5000.
In Covington, in spite of the Sc
verify Of the storm, the loss from
window breakage is small. The
Smith Hardware Co. had several sky
lights broken and some damage to
stock, while A. G. Faylor's photo
graph gallery was damaged some.
Taken altogether. however, one
such hailstorm is enough to satisfy
the curiosity of Covingtonians and
the farmers of st. Tammany parish.
We don't want any more.