3 86 
The Ohio Naturalist. 
[Vol. XII, No. 1, 
noon of the second day of the month. For June we were put in 
the area of 2 to 4 inches, with a considerable area of (3 to 2 inches 
a short distance north of us, extending from Illinois to the Atlantic 
coast. This is an error, and we should have been included in the 
latter area. For July we were near the border of a small area marked 
0.83 inches. We were in this area again in August and September; 
and the area gradually increased until it covered a large portion 
of the United States east of the Mississippi River, and there was 
inaugurated one of the most extensive and severe droughts ever 
experienced in the region. The area was still larger in October, 
extending from the Gulf of Mexico far north into Canada with 
precipitation ranging from 0 to 2 inches and marked about 0.25 
inches for our area. The dry area changed form in November, 
the northern and southern portions of it receiving more precip- 
itation, but we were still in the area with precipitation not exceed- 
ing one inch for the month. The map for December shows 
another change of form of this area, but our region is still included 
with 0 to 2 inches precipitation. 
Putting together our local observations of showers, which 
were carefully recorded, and the government reports, it is certain 
that however the areas of drought changed from the first of May, 
1908, until the first of January, 1909, our area where observations 
were made, at Oxford, was always included. In Chart XI of 
the Monthly Weather Review for May, 1909, our area is included 
in the only one in the Mississippi valley having a deficiency of 
precipitation as high as 10 inches for the year 1908. The area is 
a small one covering about one-fourth of southwestern Ohio and 
extending westward to Indianapolis. The Ohio portion of the 
area extends to the south boundary of the state at Cincinnati. 
This Review says that the Ohio valley experienced “one of the 
most disastrous droughts in the meterologieal history of the 
district. * * * The drying up of the streams and springs 
greatly inconvenienced fanners in procuring water for their 
cattle and domestic supplies, and the supplies to cities and towns 
were greatly reduced. * * * The occurrence of this drought 
rather late in the season of crop growth and development did not 
result in such widespread disaster to agricultural interests as 
might have resulted had it occurred slightly earlier.” The 
above quotation expresses well the conditions in towns and in the 
country as seen in October and November, 1908, while botanizing 
in the Miami valley. However, the drought was on at Oxford, 
and at least in other portions of Butler County, by the last of 
May so that vegetation suffered more severely here than in most 
other portions of the country that suffered from drought in 190S. 
One of the writers visited northern Illinois the latter part of 
September, and central Kentucky a month later. All of the region 
covered was reported very dry, but the region of dead grass 
scarcely extended forty miles from Oxford, either southeast or 
northwest. 
