98 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



was to kill much grass. The manner in which this result is 

 produced we will not undertake to explain; but the fact that 

 ice, adhering firmly to the ground, destroys grass, more or less, 

 is well known. Another fact deserves mention in this connec- 

 tion. The covering of ice prevented the field-mice from bur- 

 rowing amongst the grass, and these animals, straightened by 

 hunger, were forced to resort to trees, which they attacked 

 above the ice, gnawing off the bark, and thus destroying them. 

 Much damage was done in this way. 



The snow and ice finally disappeared, chiefly from the 

 influence of the sun, under an unusually high temperature for 

 the season, causing high freshets in many streams, the Connec- 

 ticut and some other northern rivers having reached a higher 

 point than before for many years. April and May were much 

 dryer than usual, only 4.05 inches of rain having fallen during 

 those months against 7.30 inches as the average. But with the 

 beginning of June the weather became wet, and from that time 

 onward there was not a day during the season when grass, or 

 any other vegetation, in this section, indicated any want of 

 moisture.* 



* The unusual wetness of the last summer and autumn, in this vicinity, 

 having been the subject of general remark, the chairman of your committee 

 thought it might be important to obtain accurate statistics, showing how the 

 season would compare with others, in regard to the quantity of rain for each 

 month. A note, therefore, was addressed to Professor G. P. Bond, of Cam- 

 bridge, who kindly furnished a table, giving the quantity of rain and melted 

 snow registered at the Observatory of Harvard College, from the beginning of 

 the year 1862 to November 28th of the same year, with the average amount for 

 thirty-four years at Boston. Prom this it appears tliat, notwithstanding the 

 remarkable dryness of April and May, the aggregate quantity of water which 

 fell from the 1st of January to the 28th of November, exceeded by nearly afoot 

 the average quantity for the year, as follows : — 



Average at Boston 

 At Cambridge — 18G2. for 34 jears. 



in. in. 



January, 7.Gi) 3.45 



Pebruary, 2.79 3.31 



March, 6.21 3.58 



April, 1.73 3.79 



May, 2.32 3.51 



June, 6.29 2.64 



July, 5.05 3.30 



August, 6.29 4.28 



September, 4.66 3.28 



October, 5.24 3.47 



November to 28th, 6.73 4.31 



December, - 4.14 



55.00 43.06 



