216 Meteorological Journal of Marietta, Ohio, 
the month, and for a number of days it was but a little above that 
point. This severe cold had a disastrous effect on fruit trees 
all kinds, especially peaches, apples and pears, the crop of these 
varieties being entirely destroyed all over the Western States, 
except in a few favored places, especially in orchards located on 
the tops of high ridges with a light loamy soil; at this time the 
blossom buds were red, on the point of opening their flowers 
Orchards on islands in the Ohio river were in some measure pro 
tected by the proximity of water, and produced a partial crop. 
The loss to the country must have been more than a million of 
dollars, as there is scarcely a farmer in the land who has not 
more or less acres of orcharding, some along the borders of the 
Ohio raising in ordinary years two or three thousand barrels 
apples. Fruit trees blossomed at about their usual period, al 
when in this state, a severe frost on the 27th of April destroyed 
the remaining strength of the germs, so entirely that the young 
fruit all dropped off before it attained the size of a robbins ¢@ 
e grape being later in blossoming, escaped in a measure the il 
effects of frost; but the excessively wet summer rotted and mil- 
dewed a large portion of the fruit, disappointing the hopes 
the cultivators in affording them only a small crop. 
The month of May was excessively wet, raining more 0 
less copiously on seventeen days, summing up at the end of the 
_ month the enormous quantity of twelve and a half inches, whichis 
_ more than all that fell in the spring months of 1857, and a grealet 
amount than ever known before since a register of the ram his 
creeks and rivers the bottoms were overflowed, destroying j 
rubbish, thus marring the grounds for future cultivation. ath 
une, and many fields were replanted two or three times, — 
others were abandoned as hopeless. This excess © Wester 
not confined to the State of Ohio, but was felt in all the Werte 
3 ‘ IB SS Aoi 
were very disastrous. West of the Mississippi river the 7 
w ore copious, as by a notice in a letter froth 
County, Iowa, there had fallen sixty-five inches from the being 
of April to the first of November, the usual quantity wet 
only forty-four inches; and as December was & Me sik 
month, there was not less than seventy-two inches," 
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