The daily Gate City and constitution-Democrat. (Keokuk, Iowa) 1916-1922, 1916-06-05

FRosrs EVERY MONTH
Similar Conditions Prevailed In Eng
land and Privations Was
Great In Both
Countries.

1u6 ICllOWlQS dCCCuuL Is Ldhcu
from the Keokuk County News, OF
very unusual weather conditions
throughout the United States a CEN
fury ago, which more than lone
Iowan Of New England stock has
heard described back in the Vermont
and New York hills:
THE year 1916 was known through
out the United States and Europe as
the coolest ever experienced by any
person then living. There are Per
sons in northern New York who
have been in the habit of keeping
diaries for years, and 1t is from the
pages of an old diary begun in 1916
that the following information re-
garding this year without a summer
has been taken.
January was SO mild that most
people allowed their fires to go out
and did not use wood except for
cooking. There were few cool
days, but they we're few. Most OF
the time the air was warm and spring
line February was not cold. Some
days were colder than In January,
but the weather was the same,
March, from the list to the 9th, was
inclined to be windy. II came in like
a S4uaA 1uu WoIA ouI lh0 d WY
innocent sheep.
april came in warm, but as the
days grew longer tho air cooled and
by the first of May there was tenn
perature 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, until
it became too late to raise a crop.
By the last of May the trees are
usually full Of leaf When the last
of May arrived In 1915, 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 common
as butterflies usually are Almost
| every green thing was killed; all
fruits were 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 was only a
few moderately warm days. Every
body 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
steadily from the north IN blasts,
laden with snow and Ice Mothers
knit socks Of double thickness for
their children and made thick nit
tens and planting and shivering was
done together, and the farmers who
worked out their taxes on the ccmn-
try roads wore overcoats and nit
tens.
ION Juno II there was heavy fall
of snow. A Vermont farmer sent a
flock Of sheep to pasture on June Is.
The morning of the 18th dawned with
the Thermometer below the freezing
point. About O'Clock in the morn
ing the owner Of the sheep started to
look for his flock. Before leaving
tokingly:
Better start the neighbours out
soon, it's the middle Of June and
may get lost in the snow
can hour after he had LETT home
a. terrible snow storm came up. The
snow fell thick and fast and, as there
was 40 much wind, the fleecy masses
piled in great drifts along the wind
ward side Of the fences and out
buildings. Night came and the farm
er had not been heard of.
His wife became frightened and
alarmed the neighborhood. All the
party searched for two days. On the
third day they found him. He was
lying in hollow on the side Of
hill with feet frozen; he was half
covered with snow, but alive. Most
Of the sheep were lost.
"A farmer near TewKsbury, Vt,
owned a large field Of corn. He built
fires. Nearly every night he and his
men took turns in keeping up the
fires 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.
Gully came in with Ice and snow.
On the Fourth of July, ice as thick as
window glass formed throughout
New York. In some parts Of the state
OF Pennsylvania. Indian corn. which
in some parts Of the east had stTug.
gled through May and June, gave up,
froze and died.
ITO the surprise OF everybody,
August proved the worst month OF
all. Almost every green thing in
this country and Europe was blasted