SECRETARY'S REPORT. 31 



infected ; the living stream shrinks to a thread-like rill ; and the 

 very fishes die for want of water. There is no rain by day 

 no dew by night; for the refreshing vapor, we have but the 

 choking dust, which floats in the air till respiration even is 

 impeded, or falls on the parched and juiceless herbage, to rise 

 an impalpable powder at every step. And still day after day 

 the cloudless sun looks down upon the fainting earth, as if to 

 draw from it all strength for the present, all hope for the 

 future. 



And while the fields are thus destroyed by the burning heat, 

 fires run through the forests with frightful and irresistible 

 rapidity, destroying the growth of centuries, and sweeping 

 away every thing in their course, till only the blackness of ashes 

 marks the site of bridges, houses and mills, and the hopes of 

 the farmer seem to be utterly prostrated. This is but a feeble 

 and inadequate picture of the suffering and despair which 

 attend a long-protracted New England drought. 



But the immediate ill effects of a long drought are not its 

 only evil consequences. It is too often followed by a distress- 

 ing scarcity of hay, and materially raises the prices of all 

 provisions for the consumption of man, thus bringing great 

 suffering upon all not prepared to meet a long-continued 

 drain upon their resources. 



But while, in many instances, the complaints and apprehen- 

 sions of a failure of the harvest arc real and well founded, it 

 often happens that a panic is created for the purpose of effect- 

 ing the prices of produce, or making a sale of large stores of 

 grain. The facilities for spreading such an alarm are great, 

 and there are always enough who are ready to use them. It 

 seems, therefore, peculiarly appropriate, at this time, to inquire 

 into the cause, the frequency and the severity of droughts, in 

 the past history of the agriculture of New England, that wc 

 may sec with what regularity the harvest follows the seedtime 

 in the fulfilment of the promise that they shall never fail, and 

 may appreciate fully the importance and necessity of guarding 

 against these seasons of suffering. 



The difficulties of such an investigation cannot easily be esti- 

 mated by those who have never attempted it. No accurate 

 meteorological records were kept till within a comparatively 



