80 Abstract of a Meteorological Journal. 



day or two, with the wind southerly, when it changed to W. N. 

 W., and continued to blow from those same dry points of the 

 compass, as it had done for the last five months. The Ohio 

 river, which rose a few feet early in November, soon fell again to 

 the same low stage which attended it during the summer, and 

 was finally closed by ice as early as the sixth of December. The 

 amount of rain for the year is SS.yYg- inches, which is about 

 seven inches less than the mean for this region. The diminu- 

 tion in quantity, however, has not been so much the cause of the 

 excessive drought which has distressed the whole western country, 

 as its distribution. Two thirds of the whole amount fell in the 

 first half of the year, when the weather was comparatively cool, 

 leaving the hottest portion, and the autumnal months, with a very 

 scanty supply. 



Effects of the drought. 



All the crops which depend on the summer months for their 

 growth, suffered exceedingly. Amongst these, the potatoe, felt 

 the ill effects most seriously, especially as great heat, as well as 

 drought is very injurious to this valuable vegetable. In most fields 

 there was an entire failure, and the common price of twenty or 

 twenty five cents per bushel rose, to ^1 and to l^l 50. Indian corn 

 on the hill lands was also a failure ; but in the old rich bottoms, 

 yielded a good crop. In new rich lands, there was a large growth 

 of stems and foliage, but not a bushel of ears to the acre, the 

 drought stopping the filling out of the grains. Beans failed in the 

 same way. Wheat, oats, and grass, ripening earlier in the season, 

 afforded good crops. Pastures were dried up in August, so that 

 some farmers began feeding their cattle and horses with hay early 

 in September. The streams, springs, and wells of water, became 

 greatly reduced, so as to occasion, in many places, much incon- 

 venience in procuring a supply for families and domestic anini^ls. 

 The water mills, which in common years furnish flour and meal 

 to the inhabitants, were silent ; and many farmers had to carry 

 their grain fifty or more miles, to mills worked by steam power. 

 Another serious evil has also arisen from the drought ; nearly all 

 the salines in the west are located on navigable streams, and de- 

 pend on the water for the transport of the salt to market. The 

 low stage of the rivers prevented its removal in any large quanti- 

 ties, until the winter closed the navigation, thus disappointing the 



