1 



The past season has proved an extraordinary one in a meteorological 

 aspect. After a very dry summer last year, the autumnal and winter 

 months brought us nearly an average quantity of rain, but from the be- 

 ginning of March to October 2 the drought in this neighborhood has been 

 unprecedented, at least within the period of his observations, which extend- 

 ed over 33 years. In every month since then less rain has fallen than the 

 average, and in two months, April and September, less than ever observed 

 before during the same time ; and usually, when in other seasons there 

 was less rain in one month, the quantity that fell in the preceding or suc- 

 ceeding months to some extent made up for the deficiency. But this year 

 we have had seven months with only two of them. May and August, with 

 a bare sufficiency, the other five with an absolute scarcity of rain. The 

 following table will show this to be the case : 



Average quantity of rain. Quantity in 1871. Proportion. 



March 3.81 inches. 1.14 inches. 1-3 



April 3.96 " 0.25 " i-i6 



May 4.94 " 3.40 " 2-3 



June 5.66 " 2.87 " 1-2 



July 4-17 " i-H " 1-4 



August 4.15 " 3.00 ♦' 3-4 



September 3.25 " 002 ". 1-16 



Thus the average quantity of rain in spring is 12.71, and in summer 

 13.98; while the quantity in the spring of 1871 was only 4.79, and in the 

 summer of 1871 only 7.01. 



In thirty-three years we had only one spring, namely that of i860, which 

 approaches the past one. In that spring there was only five and a half 

 inches of rain, but it was followed by twelve and a half inches of rain in 

 summer. One summer, that of 1854, had less rain than the past, namely, 

 not quite six inches, but then the spring had over twenty-one inches of 

 rain. In the six months together we never before had less than eighteen 

 or twenty inches of rain in the dryest seasons, while this year the quantity 

 was not quite twelve inches- 



The three autumnal months are usually dry here, the average fall of 

 rain amounting to nine and three-quarters inches, and observation shows 

 that a dry summer is commonly followed by a dry fall. The first autumnal 

 month, the past September, proves the rule for the present season, and it 

 is to be feared that the next two months will not change it. 



The fear has been expressed that this region is growing dryer from year 

 to year, and that drouths will become the ordinary condition of our 

 country, and it is a fact that this neighborhood, at least, is dryer than it 

 used to be. Even without draining, ponds disappear, and lakes that used 

 to abound in fish and fowl have become cornfields. No doubt this state of 

 things depends more especially on the more general cultivation of the soil, 

 together with the felling of timber, but dry seasons have alternated with 

 wet ones for the last thirty years. In 1842 we had only 32 inches of rain, in 

 1853 "ot quite 31, and in i860 less than 30; while in 1848 we had 65 inches; 

 in 1859, 6^ inches, and in 1858 over 68 inches, which is the greatest quan- 

 tity since 1839, when my observations of the rainfall commenced. Since 

 1859 I have never thus far observed as much as 47 inches in one year. 



