Remarkable winds on the Prairies
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Effect on the Crops.--A correspondent of the
Newark (N. J.) Daily Advertiser, writing from
Henry, Illinois, June 17th, describes the effect of the hot winds on the prairie crops:
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"The fierce and blasting winds that frequently sweep across the prairies unobstructed for many miles by timber, form a feature in our western experience with which your eastern people are happily unacquainted — Very frequently one will see a house braced on its eastern sides with strong poles, and the dwellers therein are often in great fear.
We have recently had two or three days of these severe winds, which reminds us of the burning simoon.
I have seen clouds of sand sweep across the prairies fifty feet in height, resembling snow blasts, and covering the corn of five or six inches high, so as entirely to obliterate it.
‘"The winds to which I have referred as prevailing here have a blighting effect on all vegetation, parching the leaves off the trees, and whipping the leaves and stalks of oats, wheat and corn, so that they look as if they have been subject to a severe frost.
Last week we had in this vicinity one of the most destructive and severe hail storms ever experienced in this region.
A field of rye, from which I cut some days before some stalks, which measured from root to tip seven feet two and three-quarter inches, and over the whole field stood up magnificently beautiful, was so thoroughly beaten down and destroyed that I found it reaped and cured for fodder.--The young corn was also much cut and mangled.
The extent of the hail shower was fortunately but about four miles by one and a half.
Some of the stones were of marvelous size and curious shapes."’
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