The Indianapolis journal., 1903-09-18
CROPS ARE IN DANGER
GREAT DAMAGE BY COLD WAVE IN
AGRICULTURAL DISTRICT.
Again Frost IL Predicted, and IL 1t
n Tale of Woe to Relate.

With the first touch of winter in the air.
and that month before schedule time. the
crops Of. the State are watched with the
who depend upon the harvests. Although
the thermometer remained about stationary
yesterday. it hovered only a few degrees
above the freezing point. and bleak wind
blew from the west Early in the after
noon a light drizzle of rain. such as turns
into snow under a low temperature. began
to fall. but did not last long. Last night the
clouds lifted and the night began with all
conditions favorable for the heavy frost
that had been predicted At o'clock the
temperature was 81 degrees, but from then
on II began to drop until by midnight it had
passed the point at which frost is formed.
Despite the fact that many of the crops
are far advanced. severe frost could do
no end OF damage at this time of the year
Most of the corn is well advanced and
could stand light touch--in fact. farmers
say it would do it good by stopping it's
growth and Fastening its maturity. The
corn on the lo= black lands that is still
green and somewhat late would be badly
damaged and the loss to the farmers conse-
Quently heavy. In the northern part of the
State the tomatoes, which will be harvested
In about three weeks, will be very SuScepti-
Dle 70 frost, and the canning factories are
watching the weather with eager eyes. In
other parts OF the State about one-half of
the tomato crop has been picked and il
would take pretty heavy frost to do much
damage.
A killing frost and freezing weather
sweeping across the fertile agricultural
lands of Iowa, Nebraska and Kansas
Wednesday night caused a loss of from
&o.0o0o00 TO 800. 600 600 bushels of corn as es-
ttmated BY grain men and railroad officials
The frost wave extended as far east as the
middle of Iowa, and it is stated that with
clear skies and lower temperature greater
loss of grain is expected. The northern
part OF Illinois will also suffer from the
wave. IL the heavy frost that was prom
Used last night for that section OF the
country holds good an estimate by grain
men places the loss at 5OO.00O,OO0 bushels.
The line extended east from the Rocky
boundary line OF the United States and
thence south and west. There was a slight
frost west Of the Rocky mountains, but il
was not sufficient to cause much loss The
North Platte. Neb-. and Huron. : ID
where IL reached a minimum of 2S degrees
Oficials OF the Weather Bureau do not
anticipate very heavy loss in Indiana IL
is generally conceded that light frost will
do more good than harm The Temperature
at a late hour last night was hardly low
enough to warrant a biting frost, and unless
IL took sudden drop during the morning
hours this section OF the country will escap Do
very luckily. Forecaster Blythe gives the
assurance that only crops in the lowlands
will be affected by the cool wave.
Yesterday was cloudy until evening At
6 o'clock In the morning the tempera tlIre
stood at IS. and as the day advanced IL
moved slowly upward, reaching the maxi
mum OF the day at 2 O'Clock when in was
81. IL remained about that temperature the
remainder OF the afternoon The forecast
for to-day from the United States Weather
Bureau is fair, with continued low temper
ature. Frost II again promised for tonight.
The therm ometer registered as follows al
different hours yesterday: