MICHIGAliT STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



491 



table, giving the prominent characteristics of our winters for 

 the past nine years, and applicable to Central Michigan. Each 

 ■winter, as given in the table, includes, of course, the month of 

 December of the preceding year : 



Thus it will be seen that the winter of '72 presents a mean 

 temperature many degrees lower than for many years known. 

 In fact, only once in the last decade has it been equaled in its 

 uniform and continued severity, — ^in the season of '68, when 

 the terrible cold of that long-remembered February reduced 

 the mercury of many a thermometer, in the northern portions 

 of our State, to a solid lump of glistening metal. This table pre- 

 sents, in addition to the temperature, some startling conclu- 

 sions concerning the snow-fall. The wonderful deposition of 

 1870, of five feet on a level, was it possible to suppose it depos- 

 ited in a single mass, would, of course, prove most ruinous in 

 its effects ; but, coming in gentle installments, it was rapidly 

 dissipated under the influence of a comparatively mild season. 

 The leading characteristics of the past winter may be inferred 

 from the following table : 



