The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1880-12-22
How Planters are Ia be Warned OF
Bad Weather.

Acknowledgement Drum, now act
ing as chief signal officer, has issued
an order to the rhetorical staff OF
the weather Bureau directing that
until January l probabilities" OF
frost be furnished the Louisiana su-
gar planters daily. This is a happy
thought, as during the ripening and
reaping period a frost forecast may
often save large quantities Of cane
which is fit for the mill, but which
the planter would be in no hurry to
secure unless warned that it was in
danger Of being killed. In the is
land of Barbados and other West
India sugar-growing districts where
in autumn frost is unknown, the
great desideratum is the right and
requisite rain supply, which deter
mines the amount OF the crop. But
in the narrow lowland districts on
the gull, which constitutes our sugar
growing district, the autumn rainfall
is usually ample, and the chief de-
sideratum for maturing and gather
ing the cane is an even high tenn
perature, averaging not less than
fifty-fiYe degrees throughout Novem-
Der. The provisions of frosty wealth
er, when the mercury must sink to
about forty degrees, with a dry, still
sky, is entirely practicable when the
weather report announces the pres
ence OF areas of high barometer and
polar cold in the Ear northwest. One
of these frosty waves, first observed
in Oregon on the 22d OF October, 1873,
moving southeastward, finally reach
ed the South Atlantic coast on the
second OF November with a minimum
temperature of forty-one degrees at
jacksonville, Florida. This is an IL
lustration of the slow movement OF
the atmospheric conditions which
admit OF being several DAYS pre-an-
nounced. Had the approach Of this
frigid wave been foreseen bv the
Gulf States planters for one or two
days, they could and would doubt
less have turned the information to
great use in securing the crop.
But this new application of the
weather reports will not end with
supplying frost probabilities to the
sugar interests. General Drum pro-
poses to issue special weather bull
letins to all parts of the cotton belt,
and will open signal stations at suit
able centres, from which the tele-
graphic information will be dissem-
mated daily. Although this scheme
is too late to benefit cotton-growers
this season, it promises good results
hereafter. As the plant continues to
produce and ripen its boil until frost
sets in, and the picking season lasts
from August to November, there is
large opportunity for weather tele-
grams to be utilized by the army OF
cotton pickers. But the closer study
of the neurological conditions in
fuencing the plant, TO which the
weather reports will give rise. will
be of great value in defining the
limits of its most profitable culture
both as to area and altitude, thus
enabling Southern agriculturists to
put their fields to the most econo-
mic belt. Among the achievements
of the French since their occupation
of Algeria is the reclamation bv |
drainage of "a 600 acres near Algeirs
of excellent cotton-growing land. |
No doubt large expansion of our
cotton-producing region may be ex-
pected, and with more intellectual |
cultivation, its average annual yield, |
great as 1T is now, Will Immediately |
increase with every decade-a result |
which the admirable plan of special |
meteorogical forecasts now projected !
will materially contribute to hasten.
ST. Louis ReDublican.