Rensselaer Republican, Volume 19, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 23 June 1887 — The Drouth of 1813. [ARTICLE]

The Drouth of 1813.

| From the unpublished letters of Jef{feraon, appearing recently, the following description of the drouth of 1813 is taken: ••From the fork of % James lliver and the falls pf-other rivers upward and we have had the most calamitous year ever seen since 1755. It began with the blockade, so that the fine crops of the hast year madrt in these upper parts, which could not be at market till after Christmas, were shut up by that and lost their sale. After keeping my flour till the approach of the new harvest, I was obliged to sell it, lest it would spoil on my hands, at a price which netted me only 47 cents a bushel for my wheat, of course a total sacrifice. In the year 1755 it never rained from April to November. There was not bread enough to eat, ahd many died of famine. This year in these upper regions we have had not a single rain fromApril 14 to September 20, five months, except a slight shower in May. The wheat was .killed by the drouth as dead as - the leaves of the trees now -ace— The stems fell before the scythe without being cut, and the little grain in (he head shattered on the ground. From 500 acres sowed-here I have not got in 1,500 bushels, not three times the seed. "Our corn has suffered equally. From 270 acres planted, and which in common years would have yielded from 800 to 1,000 barrels, I shall not get a barrel an acre, and a great portion of that will be what are called nubbins, being half formed ears With little grain on them. Corn consequently starts witli us at three and a third dollars, and being the principal food of our laborers, its purchase will be a heavy tax. lam told the drouth has been equally fatal as far as Kentucky. There have been a few local exceptions here from small bits of clouds accidentally passing over some farm. Should the little wheat we have made be shut up by a continuance of the blockade through the winter, we shall be absolutely bankrupt, by the loss of two successive crops. This is really the case for exclaiming '■Ofortunatimeroatores /’ ” •