Salt Lake Tribune | 1917-12-30 | Page 32 | May Pay Derly for Balmy Days, Wiseacres Say

May Pay Deany for Balmy Days, Wiseacres Say Fears of Damage to Fruit and Scarcity of Water Attend At-tend Spring-like Weather. WERE it not for the fact that the trees are leafless, a stranger dropping down from Mars yesterday yes-terday would have reached the conclusion that the people of Salt Lake were enjoying a perfect earl' summer day, -with just a lovely cooling breeze off the lake. During the afternoon the mercury rose close, to 60 degrees. Overcoats Over-coats were a burden. The only person mourning the unseasonable situation was the"coal man, who realized that every ev-ery degree above freezing point meant that so many tons less of coal would bo used. In many parts of the city furnaces fur-naces were kept at the lowest heating point, with just sufficient coal to keep the fire alive, and open grates were enjoyed en-joyed during the evening. Everybody was, speculating, however what of the coming spring and sum-met, sum-met, if the mild weather keeps up, as predicted by the weather man? The prevailing weather would be fine for winter wheat if there were more moisture, mois-ture, the agriculturalists say, but it is feared that if there is not rain or snow within a very short time the wheat will cease grow-ihg. In the mountains there is little snow, it being reported that in the gulches where last year or during average years there is more than six feet of snow, there is now about twenty inches. From many parts of the state the report re-port comes that the fruit trees are budding bud-ding and plant life in general is taking tak-ing on a spring-like appearance. It is feared that the frosts yet to come will materially injure the buds, which are yet tender, leading to a fruit shortage next year. Generally fair weather is predicted for this week, with rain about Friday. The temperature will be slightly above the seasonable average. Tho low temperature tem-perature for the past week was 34 degrees de-grees about zero, with the average at 4-6.