We have now (January 25) had forty days of snow, and nearly uninterrupted good sleighing, and the end is not yet—neither of snow nor sleighing, for there is fully a foot of the former now on the ground, and few, if any, bare spots. But the steady cold is quite as uncommon as the snow or sleighing, and will make the winter of 1883-84 a memorable one. Another remarkable feature is the low range of the thermometer where mild winters are thought to be insured by the latitude. Thus, Central and Southern Kansas and Missouri have had as cold weather as Central Illinois—a good example of which was the 27 degrees below zero registered at Makanda, a few miles north of Cobden, Ill., while the lowest point reached, 200 miles further north, was only a degree or two lower. It may be winter will break up soon—and it may be deeper snows and intenser cold are in store for us, as in some other winters of great severity.
At any rate, the protracted cold and snow which takes all pasturage out of the account in carrying stock, is making very heavy drafts on hay, grain, and fodder of all kinds and it looks now as if the big hay crop of this section will be fed out before spring. As for corn, the most of which is soft and has no grade and no sale as a merchantable commodity, except for feeding where it grew—is being very lavishly fed to stock of all kinds, as the most profitable way to get rid of it. Accounts from Nebraska and Northwest Kansas report corn in very little better condition than in Central Illinois, and dealers who bought and cribbed it early in the season are reputed badly caught.
There is nothing new to report in respect to the condition of winter wheat. So long as snow covers the ground it is safe; and after, it will come through if the weather is warm, or cold and wet, and there is little freezing and thawing to thaw it out of the ground. It is thought by those who have given the subject some attention, that though the buds of fruit trees may be killed or badly damaged by the intense cold, and though the wood was not thoroughly ripened last year, the ground not being frozen and the earth being covered by snow at the time, the vitality of the trees will remain unimpaired. It is the experience of Vermont and Maine orchardists, that if snow falls before the ground freezes to any considerable depth, apple trees effectually resist any degree of cold.