The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1913-02-07
A sUMMERLEss SUMMER.

Government records for a long
period, extending over years, show
that the average temperature and
precipitation varies during a edcade
but trifie. We have so much heat
and cold and rainfall distributed over
the year. If we accept the records,
then our mild Winter thus far, with
a great deal of precipitation, would
mean very low temperature in Feb
ruary and March, or a late cold
spring, with cool Summer and con-
siderable drouth. The chances are
for a late Spring and cool Summer.
In view of our mild January it is
interesting to turn to the strange
story of the year 1S16-the year
without a Summer. The year 1916
was known throughout the United
States and Europe as the coldest
ever experienced by any person then
living There are persons in north
ern 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 up un-
broken until 1910 that the following
information regarding this year with
out Summer has been taken. jan
uary was so mild that most persons
allowed their fires to go out and did
not burn wood except for cooking.
There were a few cold days, but
they were very few. Most of the
time the air was warm and Spring
like. February was not cold. Some
days were colder than any in Janu-
AIRY, but the weather was about the
same. March, from the 1st to the
9Th, was inclined to be windy. 1t
came in like a small lion and went
out like very innocent sheep.
April came in warm, but as the
days grew longer, the air became
colder, and by the first of May there
was a temperature like that of Win
ter, 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 cornfields were planted again
and again, until it became too late
to raise a crop. By the last of May
in this climate the trees are usually
in leaf, and birds and flowers are
plentiful When the last Of May ar
rived in 1916 everything had been
killed by the cold.
June was the coolest month of
roses ever experienced in this lati-
tude. Frost and ice were as COM
mon as buttercups usually are. AL
most every green thing was killed;
all fruit was destroyed Snow fell
ten inches deep in Vermont There
was a seven-inch fall in the interior
of New York state, and the same in
Massachusetts. There were only
few moderately warm days. Every
body looked, longed and waited for
warm weather. 1t was also dry;
very little rain fell. All summer
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 mittens.
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 About 8 o'clock in
the morning the owner of the sheep
started to look for his flock. Before
leaving home he turned to his wife
and said jokingly: Better start the
neighbor's soon; it's and middle of
June and ! may get lost in the
snow" An hour after he had left
home a terrible snowstorm came
up. The snow fell thick and fast,
and, as there was so much wind, the
fleecy masses piled in great drifts
along the windward side of the
fences and outbuildings. Night came
and the farmer had not been heard
of. His wife became frightened and
alarmed the neighborhood. All the
neighbors joined the searching par
ty. On the third day they found
him. He was lying in a hollow ON
the 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, own
ed 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 freeze. The farmer was reward
ed for his tireless labors by having
the only crop of corn in the region.
July came on with snow and ice.
On the 4th of July ice as thick as
window glass formed throughout
New England, New York, and in
some parts of the State of Pennsyl-
vania. Indian corn, which in some
part of the East, had struggled
through May and June, gave up,
frozen 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 with frost.-Scranton
Times.
CONCERNING NATHEWSON AND