Semi-weekly herald., 1912-04-01
NO SUMNER DURING YEAR 1916


The year 1916 was known through
out the United States and Europe as
the coidest ever experienced by any
person then living. There are persons
in northern New York who have been
in the habit of keeping diaries for
years, and it is from the pages of an
old diary begun in 1910 and kept un-
broken until 1910 that the following
information regarding this year with
OUT summer has been taken:
January was so mild that most pei
sons allowed their fires to go out and
did not burn wood except for cooking.
There were few cold days, but they
we're very few. Most of the time the
air was warm and spring like. Feb
ruary was not cold. Some days were
cclder than any in January, but the
weather was about the same. March,
from the first to the sixth. was in
clined to be windy. 1t came in like a
small lion and went out like very
ifHocent sneep.
April came in warm, but as the days
grew longer the air became colder,
and by the 1st of May there was n
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
cornfelds were planted again and
again, until 1t became too late to
raise crop. By the last of May in
this climate the trees 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 coldest month roses
ever experienced in this latitude.
Frost and ice were as common as but
tercups usually are. Almost every
green thing was killed; all fruit was
destroyed. Snow fell ten inches deep
in Vermont. There was seven-inch
fall in the interior of New York state
and the same in Massachusetts,. There
were only a few moderately warm
days. Everybody looked, longed and
waited for warm weather, but warm
weather did not come.
1t was also dry; very little rain fell.
All summer long the wind blew stead
lily 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 to-
gether, and the farmers who worked
out their taxes on the country roads
wore overcoats and mittens.
A farmer near Tewksbury, VT, own
ed a large field of corn. He built
fires. Nearly every night he and his
men took turns in keeping up the fire
and watching that the corn did not
freeez. The farmer was rewarded for
his tireless labors by having the only
crop Of corn in the region.
July came in with snow and fee. On
the Fourth Of July ice as thick as
window glass formed throughout New
New York and some parts 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, Au-
gust proved the worst month Of all.
Almost every green thing in this
country and Europe was blasted with
frost Snow fell at Barnet. thirty
miles from London, England, on Aug
30. Newspapers received from Eng
land stated that 1916 would be re-
by the existing generation
as the year in which there was no
There was great privation,
and thousands of persons would have
perished in this country had it not
been for the abundance of fish and
wild game.--Danbury (Conn.) News.