St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1885-02-07
Work in Hot Weather.

ALI the congratulatory songs relating
to harvesting and the harvest were
written for different climate from ours.
One can feel warmer sense of graft
tude when the thermometer marks 50
deg. or 20 deg. than when it ranges
from 80 deg. to 100 deg. in the shade,
and score degrees higher in the open
field where the American farmer works;
and so all the poetry relating to this in
teresting occupation is quite inapplica-
BILE to our fields and our broiling sun.
In fact, our harvests are the most la
borious, exacting, and painful labors of
the year, and instead of being ap-
preached with agreeable, if not hilari-
GUS, anticipations, have to be met with
care and strict precautions. - indeed,
the rigors of our harvest her are
more fatal to careless and ess per-
sons, who ignore the need for Observing
the requirements of safety from the ex-
cessive heat, than all the resto the year
together, and even the most careful
maintain their health-comfort is aban-
doned as hopeless-o by the practice
of the most rigid sanitary rules. We
propose here to consider the harvest
field in regard TO its risks and dangers,
and the precautions necessary to be
taken to perform its labors with the
most ease, the least discomfort, and the
greatest safety. And in discussing the
subject in this way we will first consider
the work of the harvest field and the
manner of doing it, and second, the re-
quirements needed to secure the comfort
and health of the persons and animals
engaged in the work.
A midsummer's day has its coolest
and its hottest parts, and the hottest part
of the day is about two in the afternoon.
And this is so because as the ground
cools during the night it has to absorb a.
large quantity of heat during the day,
and is thus, as it were, some considers
j bic time behind the sun in regard TO
heat, and when the sun is at the hie lest
and hottest at the meridian, or at noon,
the earth has not yet caught up to it in
its absorptive capacity, but this equilib-
rum is reached about two p. M, after
which the earth is actually hotter than
the sun and begins to give out its aceu-
mulated heat, and so actually adds to
the heat of the sun. AS this is the cases
then, the hardest work of the day, such
as moving, cradling, raking and bind
ing, whether these are done by hand or
by machine, should all be done in the
forenoon during the hottest weather.
and as the early morning is the coolest
part of the day, that is the time to be
chosen for outdoor work Of a laborious
kind, or that calls for direct exposure to
the SUMS heat. Now, as a man can do
more in an hour at temperature OF
20 deg. to eighty deg, or less, than he
can in two under heat Of SO deg. to
100 deg, or even more, In the SUM- il
would be not only great comfort, but
q positive economy, if a farmer would
begin his field work at daylight, or al
four in the morning, lunch at eight and
rest for half an hour, and finish his days
outdoor work st one in the afternoon
and then dine. This change might
easily and comfortably be made by the
whole household, who could rest within
doors in the cool, shaded house during
the hottest part Of the day, and the more
comfortably the house is kept cool BY
the precautions to be taken, as will b.
mentioned hereafter. Having made
such an arrangement with our own hirec
man, and having praetieed it and seer
it practiced by neighbors, We can speal
with knowledge as to the comfort ane
the economy Of this method, not onl1
for ourselves, but for the horses as well
II is reasonable, comfortable, econom
ical, healthful, and should be insiste'
upon. 1t merely changes the periods Q
work and rest, easing the former ant
lenqthoning, without taking anythint
from. the latter.-N. Y. Tines.