Meteorological Journal at Marietta, Ohio, for 1844. 29 1 



and sweet a taste, that the bees, flies and wasps pull it all off, thus 

 destroying its fructifying power before it has had time to impreg- 

 nate the fruit germs. 



The mean temperature of the summer months was 70°-97, 

 which is three and a half degrees greater than that of 1842, and 

 nearly equal to that of 1843, which was a hot summer. The 

 last month of spring and first two of summer were uncommonly 

 wet. There fell in these three months 17-62 inches of rain, lack- 

 ing only 1-20 inches of being equal to that of the other nine 

 months. The night between the 2d and 3d of July will long 

 be remembered for the greatest fall of rain ever known in Mari- 

 etta. It amounted to 4-25 inches. It was attended with but 

 little thunder and quite moderate wind, blowing from the south- 

 west, and changing to southeast. I was told by several people of 

 veracity, that buckets which they had left out, and knew to be 

 empty in the evening, were full of water in the morning. This 

 would make six or eight inches ; but my rain-gauge, which stands 

 in an open place in my garden, contained only four and a quarter 

 inches. The low grounds on the small streams were all over- 

 flowed, and much grass and grain destroyed. The Hockhocking 

 bottoms were flooded, and large quantities of wheat, which had 

 been reaped and stood in shocks, were swept ofl" and floated down 

 the current. From early in May to the last of July, the whole 

 valley of the Mississippi, from the Rocky to the Allegheny Moun- 

 tains, was deluged with rain. On the Missouri and Mississippi 

 rivers the floods were unprecedented, and the destruction of crops, 

 herds, fences and buildings, without a parallel since the settle- 

 ment of the country. The excessive moisture and heat of June 

 and July was very injurious to the wheat crops, causing a mil- 

 dew and rust on the delicate cuticle of the straw, and thus blight- 

 ing the grain. The produce of many fields was nearly destroyed. 

 In the northern portion of Ohio, the growth is somewhat later, and 

 the wheat less injured. The crops of Indian corn were never 

 better, being superior both in quality and amount. By the 24th 

 of August, along the Ohio River bottoms, corn planted in April 

 was fully ripe, and the farmers commenced harvesting by cutting 

 it lip and setting it in shocks to dry. In common years, corn is 

 ripe about the 20th of September. The production of potatoes, 

 oats and grass, was uncommonly good. Sweet potatoes suc- 

 ceeded very finely, the heat and rains of the summer approaching 

 to that of the tropics, their native habitat. 



