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The effects of the late season (1816) on the growth of 

 grain, grasses and vegetables, in the neighbourhood of 

 the city of Washington, and the country above and be- 

 low it, connected with the navigation of the Potomac. 



The coldness of the spring was such as to produce 

 a general despair, as to all the winter grain crops, and di- 

 minish expectations, as to the spring grain, and all kinds 

 of esculent plants. 



This state of things continued till the end of May, 

 when a plentiful fall of rain, and some warm weather, 

 produced a most marvellous change ; and though very 

 little rain fell afterwards, during the whole summer, the 

 crops of winter grain, at harvest, proved more productive 

 than for some years before. The crops of timothy hay 

 also, on meadows which were rich, whether on low or 

 high land, afforded an ordinary, and, in some instances, 

 a superior yield. 



The crops of oats were worse than ordinary : wheat 

 lands, which were sowed in the spring with plaster, ex- 

 hibited a great improvement in the crop, which, in some 

 instances, was supposed to have been doubled, in others, 

 to have received the addition of one-third. 



Clover failed generally very much, from the effect of 

 cold, combined with the want of moisture, probably more 

 from the former, than the latter. In fact, the second 

 growth was generally very small. Indian corn, in ordina- 

 ry lands, was feeble all the summer, late in shooting, and, 



