386 The Ohio Naturalist. [Vol. XII, No. 1, 



noon of the second day of the month. For June we were put in 

 the area of 2 to 4 inches, with a considerable area of to 2 inches 

 a short distance north of us, extending from Illinois to the Atlantic 

 coast. This is an error, and we should have been included in the 

 latter area. For July we were near the border of a small area marked 

 0.83 inches. We were in this area again in August and September; 

 and the area gradually increased until it covered a large portion 

 of the United States east of the Mis.sissippi River, and there was 

 inaugurated one of the most extensive and severe droughts ever 

 experienced in the region. The area was still larger in October, 

 extending from the Gtilf of Mexico far north into Canada with 

 precipitation ranging from to 2 inches and marked about 0.25 

 inches for our area. The dry area changed form in November, 

 the northern and southern portions of it receiving more precip- 

 itation, but w^e were still in the area with precipitation not exceed- 

 ing one inch for the month. The map for December shows 

 another change of form of this area, but our region is still included 

 with to 2 inches precipitation. 



Putting together our local observations of showers, which 

 were carefully recorded, and the government reports, it is certain 

 that however the areas of drought changed from the first of May, 

 1908, until the first of January, 1909, our area where observations 

 were made, at Oxford, was always included. In Chart XI of 

 the Monthly Weather Review for May, 1909, our area is included 

 in the only one in the Mississippi valley having a deficiency of 

 precipitation as high as 10 inches for the year 1908. The area is 

 a small one covering about one-fourth of southwestern Ohio and 

 extending westward to Indianapolis. The Ohio portion of the 

 area extends to the south boundary of the state at Cincinnati. 

 This Review says that the Ohio valley experienced "one of the 

 most disastrous droughts in the meterological history of the 

 district. * * * 'pj^g drying up of the streams and springs 

 greatly incon\'cnicnced farmers in procuring water for their 

 cattle and domestic supplies, and the supplies to cities and towns 

 were greatly reduced. * * * t^q occurrence of this drought 

 rather late in the season of crop growth and develo]3ment did not 

 result in such widespread disaster to agricultural interests as. 

 might have resulted had it occurred slightly earlier." The 

 above quotation expresses well the conditions in towns and in the 

 country as seen in October and November, 1908, while botanizing 

 in the Miami valley. However, the drought was on at Oxford, 

 and at least in other portions of Butler County, by the last of 

 May so that vegetation suffered more severely here than in most 

 other portions of the country that suffered from drought in 1908. 

 One of the writers visited northern Illinois the latter part of 

 September, and central Kentucky a month later. All of the region 

 covered was reported very dry, but the region of dead grass 

 scarcely extended forty miles from Oxford, either southeast cr 

 northwest. 



