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Show flLfeell IRrosi and ihef ,x r rmit Grops JkMsm M 4. --r.t-i-ki- f-H-7 AIN'T NATURE GRAND! She smilns and beams and beams and smiles, Wtlk sun and gentle showers, Willi all her springtime wooing luiles, On grass and trees and flowers; And then she gels her live wires crossed Ind.goes and flirts with old Jack Frost, Although she knows the brute Thinks it smart and cute To nip bud, blossom, fruit! And then she smiles the same old smile And works again the same old guile On all the land To beat the band. Ain't Nature grand I J. V. s. . " WO cold snaps this spring caused wlde-' wlde-' spread damage to the fruit crops. ri The southern limit of the one at the -' 0I1(I of March was well into Oklahoma, Kentucky and Maryland. The one in April did not extend so far south, but ?jr -f overlapped the north line of the first J i frost. The northern limit of damage 7j? " '" l'otl1 rlms 1111 tCl tlle G''eat Lakes ' and in Minnesota and New York and ? Wt?? v V ) By kindling numerous &J$jJfi V $&$y - done. The hot gases VlWirW W ing . upward from X SS?? " ' feXLM ch blaze lift and toss vJSS&J &$&&w &Ll f earth-The hot gases seT CSS'Zk 'tKlA- I $4, to assist in warming the , rv Jtife'TW' U i- chilled atmosphere, but the tJb&fo' f-tI effect of direct radiation Cdf'ftlCW V This difference- in heat &frCl quality is very well Illus- M2JVC2 trated in our homes. DL rop- rnflinfinn is flip sort ermont, clear to the Canadian boundary. Reports are that the damage is heavy in places. For example, two experts of the crop reporting service in Missouri estimated the damage to fruits and early vegetables at if 10,000,000. The apple crop in Washington, Benton, and other oth-er counties in the northwest Arkansas fruit region will he practically a total loss. Peaches. and cherries cher-ries were killed and strawberries damaged almost 50 per cent. Despatches said about 95 per cent of the fruit crop in Oklahoma is ruined. It is estimated that Nebraska's crop of early cherries, apples, pears, and plums is a total loss. The early varieties of fruit in some eastern states also suffered heavily. Kaiiy peaches, cherries, and " plums probably have been killed in southeastern Pennsylvania. The cold weather seriously damaged the fruit crop in the southern part of Ohio, where the fruit was far advanced. Thousands of Maryland fruit trees were in full Hoom when hit by this frost. Growers in Washington Wash-ington county, the center of the western Maryland peacli belt, report the peach crop destroyed. The fruit crop in Kentucky apparently was killed. Therefore the following article, prepared by the United Stales Department of Agriculture, is worth the attention of every fruit grower: The weather bureau of the United States Department De-partment of Agriculture has been able to discover the weapon used by that old enemy of mankind, Jack Frost, and in a recent published report It tells the farmer and fruit grower just what Jack's invisible weapon Is, and how, under ordinary conditions, con-ditions, the sprite's own artillery may be used against him. Frost, of course, occurs whenever the mercury drops to 32 degrees F. or lower. If much moisture mois-ture is present in the atmosphere this drop in temperature is manifested by the white crystals of heat given off by the wood-burning parlor stove when its hot sides are glowing on a cold winter night, while the hot gases given off by combustion pass up the chimney. This method of preventing frost is very efficient, and each year it saves much money for American fruit growers. Just how it is best applied, how many fires are needed to the acre, and the form and style of burner giving the best results, are well discussed in the Weather Bureau Bulletin No. 1096. Many a fruit grower has nursed an expensive orchard to the point of bearing only to see his -ell-deserved reward vanish in a single night. But more and more we are discovering that, if we cannot defy certain natural laws, we may still nullify their results through a better understanding understand-ing of their principles. This is what the up-to-date fruit grower does. He cannot eliminate , frost, but he can use its principles to protect himself him-self from its effects. Tips to Orchardists. The weather bureau bulletin treats the frost-prevention frost-prevention methods very thoroughly, and the pamphlet should be particularly useful to anyone who owns an orchard or who contemplates planting plant-ing one. First of all, the experts point out, the orchard owner should determine whether his crop will pay the expense of protection ; if It will not, then he had better move to a less erratic climate. Certain fruits will stand a lower temperature than others, and the experts furnish a temperature chart to show this. Here it is: Temperatures Endured by Blossoms for 30 Minutes Min-utes or Less. Closed After but Show- Full Fruit Has Fruit ing Color Bloom Set F. F. F. Apples ' 25 28 29 Peaches 25" 26 28 Cherries 25 28 50 Pears 25 28 30 T-.1 "JO OA day-time heat, regrets his generosity of the sunshiny sun-shiny hours. On rainy days, when the cloud strata has cut off the sun's heat, the earth is not much warmed during the day. If, during the night, the clouds blow away, the earth is apt to go bankrupt. That is why, when the season is passing from spring to summer, or from summer to fall, a three days' rain is so often followed by a frost. The first clear night presents heat bills to the earth which he Is unable to pay, and Jack Frost, nature's sheriff, places his crisp seal upon the improvident . old fellow. The farmer looks out across his blasted fields in the morning and sighs, "A killing kill-ing frost last night." And this is because the old earth, already gray with age and experience, hasn't yet learned how to "save up for a rainy day!" The most common method for frost prevention is to establish a sort of savings bank for the old fellow "earth. Rest assured that he'll spend his reserve if he can ! Glass makes the best heat savings sav-ings bank. It has the curious property of allowing allow-ing the heat from the sun to pass through to the earth, but it will not allow the radiated heat from the earth to go back to the "eager air." Glass is expensive, however, and can be used ouly for the protection of comparatively small areas of ground. Wood is also a good watchman to set above the ancient profligate. Though it will not allow heat to pass from the sun as glass does, neither will it allow it to pass outward from the earth. In sections of the South a lath network is used to cover crops during the danger periods. The wooden wood-en network holds down a large amount of heat, and when a frost occurs it helps the frozen plants by shading them from the direct rays of the morning sun and allows them to thaw gradually. Quick thawing of the frozen water particles in plant or fruit is fatal, as it causes the cellular tissues to break down ; if the thawing process Is very gradual the plant may reabsorb the fluid and the damage done may be surprisingly slight. ot trozen moisture upon leaf or grass stem, and there is what is known as a "white frost." If the temperature drops -to the required degree and does not reach the point when water from the air is condensed, there will be few crystals deposited, de-posited, and the result is a "black frost." A "freeze" is the term applied to a condition of cold more permanent than a frost, and such a condition may occur when there are high winds. True "frosts" occur only when the surface air is relatively rel-atively calm. Temperature, like water, seeks a level. During the day the earth receives more heat than it can throw off, hut at night this supply of heat is stopped. During the day the heat thrown off by the earth warms the thin blanket of air next the ground. This blanket, as it warms, loses its density and ascends. Cooling as it rises, presently present-ly it encounters air of its own temperature, and there ii stops. Meanwhile its place has been taken by other colder nir, which is in turn warmed by contact with the ground. This exchange goes en nn;i!. at sundown, all the air of a wide layer above the earth has been warmed, and the highest high-est temperature is felt nearest the earth. Earth Squanders Its Heat. Nov.'. wi!h the sunset, old earlli begins to suffer from a bit of aerial trickery. All day long he litis teen patiently passing out heat to one cold air laver alter another; night comes, and with it the loss of his source of supply, but do these warm upper layers pass back any of the heat they begged during'' the day? They do not unless they are made to. The layer close to the earth does, and thus they leave their coldest blanket against the shivering earth while they sail about 41) or ."(J feet above their late benefactor, serene and warm and selfish, little caring that the spendthrift spend-thrift earth is freezing his toes below. As the earlh becomes colder the air blanket next his brown old skin becomes colder, too, and heavier as it becomes colder, so that the colder it grows the more tightly It fits, and he has little chnnce of throwing off Ids chilly coverlet to seize warmer zone. The earth, too prodigal of his 1 luins ...............-.. fj uu Apricots 25 27 SO Prunes 28 29 30 Almonds 26 27 30 Grapes 30 31 31 Charts vhich show in a graphic way how the fires should be distributed through ail orchard are reproduced. These have been prepared from studies made in successful orchards and are the result of the best methods in use in this country. Overhead costs are discussed, as well as the care of the frost-fighting apparatus. Records Should Be Kept. Once an owner decides to fight Jack Frost for his profit it Is most important that he keep records rec-ords of the battles, so that he may refer to them when the next skirmish threatens. The knowledge knowl-edge that a ten-mile wind will prevent frost when the thermometer is at 40 degrees F. at sunset may apply to only one fruit farm, but it will save that owner the expense of lighting his fires if he does know it. Records, if he keeps them, will tell him tli is. Several bits of home-made apparatus will save the frost fighter good sound dollars, and the pamphlet tells how these may be made ami used. The effect of soot from the oil llames upon the fruit blossoms is made clear to ibe reader in an account of experiments condu- led to determine this problem. As a matter of fact, soot does not hinder the pollination of fruit blossoms, imr does it injure them in any way. From first to last, the Tinted Slates Department Depart-ment of Agriculture Farmers' Bulletin No. HHI is filled with valuable information for anyone who is attempting to grow fruits or vegetables in frost-visited areas. It is tin invaluable manual for any person who may be appointed as temporary tem-porary receiver to stand between a shivering, bankrupt world and its ungrateful creditors. As stilted before, this mundane sphere, in spite of a hundred thousand years of cold toes and chilly nights, has never learned to save in I lie sunshine ( of plenty against the night of want. And it never will. Various Methods Used. Taper is of less value in conserving heat than is wood, though it is more efficient than cloth. Cloth allows that cold mendicant, the air, to penetrate pene-trate to the earth and steal the last degree of heat from him. So a cloth covering must be quite heavy if the frost is a hard one. Iron or metal pots are not at all good as bankers for the earth they allow the heat to pass back into the air almost al-most as readily as the earth itself. There is another method that is employed to save the spendthrift from the sheriff. The presence pres-ence of moisture in the air makes the radiation of heat difficult and helps greatly to conserve the heat which the earth already holds. Also, if the temperature drops to freezing each drop of water gives up a bit of latent heat before congealing, and all these tiny contributions help to keep the surface air warmer. A breeze from ocean, lake, or river will usually -bring this wet blanket, and it can sometimes be supplied in an artificial mannei by letting water into irrigation ditches. Results not so good may be had by building damp smudge tires in the orchard. or-chard. Cranberry growers often save their crops hy flooding the area with wulei. In the event of' extreme cold it is often possible to submerge entile en-tile areas growing tlos crop. This gives absolute protection. Los prodigal than earth, water keeps its reserve heat for long period.- of time. Force Air to Be Honest. The third method of keeping the earth solvent is by adding heat to the air layers near the surface. sur-face. This is done by means of many small fires of oil, coal, wood, or orchard refuse, and is a method well known in sections where fruit growing grow-ing is a specialty. It is sometimes scorned as an attempt to "warm up all outdoors," but that is not what happens, exactly. We know that, at night, the air above the earth is warmer than the air directly against it. Therefore, if ihe lower low-er and colder strata could be lifted and mixed with the upper air, a higher and more equable temperature would result. |