Every evening, Wilmington daily commercial., 1921-04-16
SHOWED 63 YEARS AGO
TODAY, SAYS MAN OF 83
April IS. 1853, Was Latest Date
of Winter Storms Recalled
i'm Delaware.

friend of Every Evening, who IL
eighty three. recalls that when he was
a Young man of twenty, there was
heavy snow storm, on April 10, 1898,
apa declares that that was the latest
datp that snow has fallen in Delaware,
for moro than a hundred years. AT that
ttlur ne was living in Sussex county and
remembers when the people downstate
awnke on that morning they were
amazed to find a covering of snow
snrcad over everything, more than fve
inches deep. There had been no in
aicatinnS of such an unSca sonable
demonstration on the part of ODD
Iarcas" the night before, and Sussex
county was astonished at the trans
formation over night. The fruit trees
that had been gorgeous in their spring
dress OF blossoms were bruised by the
clinglng snow. and gardens that had
been planted early were five inches un-
der the white sheet of he white storm.
Every Evenings friend also recalls
that the snow soon melted and disap-
pcared under the SUMS rays which be
rarne almost summerlike in warmth be-
fore ten o'clock in the morning, by
which time the snow had gone almost
ms unysteriously and more quickly than
81 came.
Almost all the fruit was killed that
wear. even much of the small fruit. but
n NAV be comforting 10 know that the
vegetables in the growing gardens. un-
less II be the tomatoes. suffered but
little from their Arctic experiences.
This may be cheering 10 farmers whose
gardens and truck patches were under
uay when the recent heavy frosts vis-
kted this section on March % and on
April Of this year. The fruit IN the
1855 cold wave was almost entirely des-
froved but the orchards came back
again the next year with unusually big
yield Of apples. pears. peaches, and there
was an abundance of small fruits, al
though fruit was not SO much grown
rn those days as in later periods.
our informant recalls old men Of that
time. in discussing the unreasonable
weather. when many whose memory ran
hack for seventy years beyond 1858. ex-
pressed themselves as never having
witnessed such a phenomen before. So
possibly. the snow of 1853 was the
latest period that winter has ever
fingered in the lap Of a Delaware spring.
as the early crop Of poets used TO ex-
press the thought Of a be.ated shit OF
seasons.
II Is recalled. also that there we're
similar unreasonable storms and cold
weather in 1883 and that on April 16
NJ that year there was slight spit OF
snow. too light. however. 70 be called
snow storm. In adjacent sections of
PENNSYLVANIA much fruit was destroyed
n the cold Possibly. the snow OF Mon
nav of this week April II, was one of
the heaviest downfalls that this sec
/ = has had 50 late in April since. in
deed. the deep snow Of 1888. 1t may be
PASSED as = blizzard. and would have
u.stroyed the whole fruit crop had not
The bughting frost Of March 70 already
put trees out OF bearing commission for
the year.
April IG seems 70 have he'd the record
r. fruit disasters from cold for more
Than half "A century. but the date has
shifted 10 March %. which however IS
!. = pcrilous except when vegetation IS
most three weeks ahead Of its sched-
u.,. as was the case this season.