Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 104, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 May 1913 — THE PAST AND PRESENT SEASONS [ARTICLE]

THE PAST AND PRESENT SEASONS

Careful Observer Furnishes Interesting Record of Period When Fruit Trees Bloom. • West Carpenter Township, April 30, 1913. Editors Republican: Every year we hear “Old Settlers” compare the present season with former years. Now, it may be of interest to some to know from actual records, how 'this season compares, with the last few years. There is nothing more reliable, perhaps, to go by than the time of blooming of plums, peaches, and other fruit trees. Peaches blossom Irom one to six days later than plums. Now compare the dates of the following years for plums: 1913—April 21st. 1912—April 30th. 1911—April 22nd. 1910-April 7th. 1909-April 17th. 1908—April 16th. 1907—April Ist. ‘"~ 1906—April 24th. "1905—April 21st. In 1910 we had pretty heavy freezing and snow all the last half of April that killed most of the fruit. In 1851, the first of May found ice thick enough to bear a. man over shallow water with no grass up on the prairie. Six or seven years later cattle could live well on the new prairie grass on March 20th. There is one fact that many have not observed, that is that peaches are very rarely killed by frost after they come out in bloom, and apples never, or seldom, before they bloom. Nearly everybody is plowing for corn; I am cutting and hauling logs. How little we ever dreamed of having a saw-mill and working up logs over 3 feet in diameter when we settled here 67 years ago, when there was not a bush as big as your finger within 3 miles of us. LEWIS S. ALTER.