216 Meteorological Journal at Marietta, Ohio. 
and the mean for the month was 24°36; on the 9th and 11th 
of this month in 1856, at 4 o'clock, A.M. the temperature was 
—21°, as observed by a gentleman who lives four miles above 
Marietta, near the Muskingum river. Eighteen miles above, it 
stood at —25°, as observed by Dr. Bowen of Waterford, at the . 
same hour—my period for observing being 6 o’clock or about 
sunrise. The greatest degree of cold noted by myself during the 
winter was in February, when it was at —15° the fifth day of the 
month. This season was also one to be remembered, for the 
ceasea to r 
navigation till the 8d or 4th of March, when the ice gradually 
ave way without much of a rise in the head waters, beginning 
rom below and working gradually up stream, contrary to the 
usual course, without much damage ats. From the un- 
usual quantity of snow, it was expected a great flood, like that of 
1832, would attend the breaking up of the rivers, but the snow 
was So much consolidated that it melted very slowly and thus 
happily disappointed the fears of the inhabitants along the bor- 
ders of the rivers. The mean temperature of the winter months 
of 1855-56, was 25°-67, which is the lowest on record—that of 
1846 being 29°-91—but usually our winters range from 82° to 36 : 
Spring months—The mean temperature for spring is 49 = 
which is more than two degrees below that of the year 1855, an 
four below that of 1854, which is mainly attributable to the low 2 
e of the month of March, being in 1854, 47°-55; and in 1856, 
32°13; a difference of more than fifteen degrees, occasioned by 
the amount of snow on the ground until near the close of 
the month. The blossoming of fruit trees was much ret ed ; 
the peach, where the fruit buds escaped the deadly effects of the 
winter, not opening until the 22d of April, and the pear am 
cherry on the 29th, twenty days later than the ordinary period. 
The season was uncommonly Decale aed atta trouble was, ex 
perienced by our farmers in the germination of especially 
ed by en 4 
of Indian corn, in many fields requiring two or three plantmgs; 
F 
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