SECRETARY'S REPORT. 37 



tumn of the next year (1747) there was no water in the streams 

 for grinding, on account of the dry weather; and in 1748, (to 

 show another series of droughts,) all accounts concur in say- 

 ing that the drought was unparalleled in the history of the 

 country, except when George I. was crowned, in 171-1. On 

 May 15, Smith says, ''Unusually hot, dry weather." 31. — 

 • Melancholy time ; all the talk is about the heat and drought ; 

 never the like." June 20. — "No rain except showers in the 

 country this year." July 10. — "Dying hot. It is a most mel- 

 ancholy dry time ; the grass in the pastures is till burnt up." 

 1". — "Steady rain." The English grass and the grain were 

 cut short, though the Indian corn stood it very well. Fires 

 raged in many places, and swept over many hundred acres. 

 The farmers long remembered the drought of 1748; and, from 

 all accounts, it seems never to have been equalled previous to 

 that time. Men were obliged, in many instances, to kill their 

 cattle for want of food. One farmer, who owned twenty cows, 

 was compelled to kill eleven, and many were wintered entirely 

 on rag-weed. The suffering during the winter was intense ; 

 and scarcely had the spring opened when (April, 1749) an 

 awful drought commenced, and drove the farmers almost to de- 

 spair. Cattle were every where suffering for want of food, 

 and were driven to browse in the woods, while many farmers 

 went from forty to sixty miles into the woods to cut meadows. 

 This continued through May and June. The Indian corn 

 was seriously injured, but a rain on the Gth of July revived 

 it. And while the drought threatened to destroy every thing, 

 the grasshoppers appeared in myriads, eating up whole acres 

 of potatoes. Smith says, July 3, " I reckon my poultry (about 

 a hundred) eat ten thousand grasshoppers every day." The 

 inhabitants of Xahant formed a line, and drove them with 

 bushes into the sea by millions. Meantime the heat was in- 

 tense. It was said to be "the most remarkable time that ever 

 we or our fathers saw;" and at Boston it was recorded, July 

 !. "Never more distressing time for pasture; only one-tenth 

 of a crop of hay." 18. — "Extreme hot, dry weather, such as 

 has not been known in the memory of man — so scorching that 

 the creatures can but just live for the want of grass." 24. — 

 ••Thanksgiving for seasonable and refreshing rains." This 



