The Florida agriculturist. [volume] (DeLand, Fla.) 1878-1911, 1881-03-16
Our Cold Snap.
Editor Of The Florida Agrsculturist:

1t is interesting and instructive tc
trace the vagaries of the freeze OF
December Both, 1880, different in
some respects from its predecessors.
These visitations occur every three
or four years or more, and not az
innocent lambs of new corners are
taught to believe, but once or twice
in century. In many instances its
effects were the same on either side
OF the st. Johns, which did not exer.
else its usual mitigating influence
over the cutting blasts as they swept
across its bosom. Places that have
hitherto suffered equally, were on this
occasion very partially dealt with.
And consequently those favored
districts which the Ice King kindly
passed by or where he trod lightly.
are now pointed out to a generous
and confiding public as being below
the line of injurious trost-that won.
dertul, ever varying line about which
we hear SO much and whose definite
positions, like the will.o'-the-wisp,
it is TO difficult to establish.
The following data respecting sew.
eral cold snaps that have occurred in
the last few years are submitted in
order that persons interested in the
subject may know what, Judging
from thePast, they may expect in f1,
ture and not be misled by witnessing
the very partial and discriminating
effects of the polar wave Of Decem.
Der Both.
That the mercury should indicate
"a at Rock Ledge, Indian river, 22o
at Ormond, not degree of latitude
above, l80 at st. Augustine, and %
opposite Jacksonville, shows a re-.
markable difference of temperature
In points so short = distance apart,
proving that the cold must have gone
e u trsaks rs aehss & a " 81 : 51sSs.
the case, nearly all the southern
portion of the peninsula would have
suffered. Exemption is also claimed
at Tampa and bnt little injury
through the lower parts of Sumter
and Orange counties At Mandarin,
where the degree of cold has always
been the same as here, the oranges
were mostly ruined, while ours were
not badly injured, although the mer.
curry touched 240 aud remained be
low freezing just twelve hours.
The effects of the freeze of '68, 70
and 80 were about the same here
the first being perhaps a little the
most severe. That of '76 was with
US, as Sancho Panza would say, but
cakes of gingerbread compared with
the others, the oranges being
scarcely touched, and the guava
plants barely killed down. The mer-
curry touched 2S0 one night, and
ranged from 310 to So the other
five mornings. And yet light as it
was on the 10" er ST. Johns, its effects
were painfully manifest on Indian
river, even as tar as Fort Capron, as
reported by neighbors who made a
tour OF inspection that way.
Since III. 5. Williams, of Rock
Ledge, is SO anxious that the whole
truth should be known, in order that
Indian river may not suffer, append
an extract from his letter OF Decem
Der 18th, 1876, showing a state OF
things III that little freeze, quite the
reverse of what he describes in the
FLORIDA AGRICULTURIsT of March
I'd: "At daylight my thermometer
was down to 800, or two degree be-
low freezing. On the Bird, 4th and
9th, it was 32o, 81 and $40 respec.
lively. On the morning of the I'd
Ice was formed one.quarter OF an
inch thick, and continued to freeze in
shady places until 10 o'clock, A. NJ.
when i'll some localities 1t was half an
inch thick. Sunday morning, the 3rd
there was heavy black frost, which
seemed to do more damage than the
freeze of the night before. A nursery
OF several hundred orange and lemon
trees badly nipped. The experience
is worth much to US, yet il is very
discouraglng to see the labor ol
weeks and months thus destroyed in
single night. AS far as can learn
it was just about as cold as in 1868
when the ice was formed one Incl
thick. A neighbor just returneI