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METEOROLOGICAL REPORTS FOR 1870. 



BY E. J. ISBELL, ESQ. 



A careful inspection of the Meteorological Tables now presented will show, 

 what certainly our bodily feelings have already taught us, tint the year 1870 

 was a very remarkable one indeed. 



The drought was excessive ; and the temperature, at one period equal 

 to the hottest day of 1868, was at another lower than any degree of cold I 

 have ever before recorded at Hereford. 



It will be remembered that 18G4 was also a very dry yen ■ ; until 1S70 it 

 was, I believe, the dryest on record at this place; the yearly total of rainfall 

 that year bang, according to the Blue School rain-guage (0 feet 3 inches from 

 the ground), 19.318 inches ; and according to my five-inch guage at the St. 

 Owen's end of the town (12 inches from the ground), 20.140 inches. Thi3 year 

 my 8-inch gauge at Richmonel-place (5 feet 3 inches from the ground), gave a 

 total of 18.631 inches ; and the 8-inch gauge at "White Cross (one foot from the 

 ground) 18.9S5 inches. To the best of my knowledge, therefore, 1S70 has proved 

 at Hereford the dryest year on record. 



The effects of the thought in 1870 were very mischievous, are still 

 severely felt, and will, I fear, be felt for a considerable time to come ; for the 

 year was dry throughout, and the dryest months — April, May, and June — were 

 precisely those months in which rain is most needed for young vegetable life. 



The temperature too of the summer months of 1870 was, as already 

 observed, occasionally very high. On the 22nd of June, the maximum reading 

 was 92° ; and in July the temperature on the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th, fully equalled 

 the hottest days of 1S68, the maximum readings being as follows :— 22nd, 95,2 ; 

 23rd, 94.7 : 24th, 96. 



This combination of drought and heat has certainly been very disastrous, 

 and the worst consequences have probably yet to be encountered. Around 

 Hereford hay-making in 1870, was a thing almost unknown, and even in the 

 Vale of Taunton, I am informed, good hay imported from Ireland is eagerly 

 bought up by the farmers at £7 10s. the ton. At Hereford it is now selling at 

 £S the ton. 



With the heat and drought came a plague of minute flies, which, about 

 the end of September, caused vast mischief to vegetation. Some strong ever- 

 greens near my own house were covered with these flies and afterwards appeared 

 as though they had been struck by lightning. They have remained in a blighted 

 hilf dead condition ever since. 



