Weather rambling — August 1883

“The plum crop in the Champlain Valley gives promise of being abundant,” The Morning Star of Glens Falls reported on Aug. 16, 1883. “Pears will be knotty and imperfect, while the yield of apples will be remarkably light.”

The vegetable crop needed steady rain to thrive.

“Yesterday’s shower was appreciated by everybody, the only fault found being that its duration was altogether too short for the present needs of vegetable life,” The Morning Star reported on Aug. 24, 1883.

Mother Nature brought another break in the heat and humidity two days later.

“Yesterday was one of the most comfortable days of the season,” The Morning Star reported on Aug. 27, 1883. “The mercury dropped into the seventies, and toward evening one could wish that the breezes were tempered with just a little of last week’s caloric.”

It was short lived.

“The drought still continues, entailing serious loss as well as inconvenience to farmers,” The Morning Star reported on Aug. 29, 1883. “The pastures are baked and dried up so that stock can get neither sufficient food or water. In some localities water has to be carted to them in barrels and hay from the late harvest fed out to keep the animals from starving.”

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