What a 19th-Century Farmer’s Forgotten Notes Reveal About Growing Seasons
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What a 19th-Century Farmer’s Forgotten Notes Reveal About Growing Seasons
Jun 11, 2023
The documents provide evidence of climate change’s effect on hardwood trees in Ohio
Kellen Calinger-Yoak couldn’t believe her luck. In 2009, The Ohio State University forest ecologist found a 1915 Monthly Weather Review journal with nearly three decades of late-1800s growing season records. She read row after row of details from Ohio farmer Thomas Mikesell, who tracked weather patterns, seasonal shifts in trees and plants, and crop yields around Wauseon, Ohio. The farmer had penned painstaking information on the same tract of land where he was born in the state’s northwestern corner, and the journal had published it.
