The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-09-11

 CTS light the frost. While in the hours summer temperaturcs. night and early morning may be sharp and cold. H is in these weeks of early fall when crops and fruits arc ripening that the farmer must be on the alert to prevent damage Time was when hessy frost necessarily meant injury to grow- ing crops, but today when news is sent over khe farming districts or the coming of frost. there is . mustering is the moisture of tie air condensed aL People who live in large cities know very little about modern methods py which the farmer wages his never ending battle with the clements. The woman who on chill September nights ties an old newspaper over ner pet rosebush is battling with the frost m d way long familiar, but the up-to-dAte agriculturist has many otner "espons "esp0 at his command. :.
 Everybody knows the appearance or frost--the giistening white particLes upon grass and plants ana other op iects As the scientist explains 1t. frost is the oisture of the air condensed " freezing temperature upon ooJects near the surface of the earth. When frost Is formed. the temperature or the ar . few feet above the earth Is commonly several degrees above freezing, but the surfaces upon which the frost Is de- pbsited must possess freezing tempera- tures These are due to several causes. The radiation of heat stored In plants ana in the earth itself during the hours of sunshine. the evaporation or moislu,e and the tendency of cold ar 10 settie while the warmer air rises contribute 70 the formation of fros. n9wsn .t,on sn atmosphere charged with moisture. wind which keeps the air in motion and SO eoualizes the temperature. are nat ural preventatives.
 Tn his battle with the frost the farm CT seeks to produce artihcially some or these conditions. but he must nave news of the coming of the frost ana many means for giving warming have been employed Tn France. frost bells are sounded when frost is expected, and grape growers protect their crops by pouring tar on the ground among the vines and setting 1t on hre. The smoke thus made often saves the crop of an entire vineyard. a fact of interest to Americans who are good customcIs of the French grape growers as IS shown by the demand for the cold bot tie to accompany the hot bird. Tn America. there are districts where 1t was formerly a practice to maintain regular messenger service. that the Weather Bureaus predictions of frost might be promptly carried to farmers and fruit growers. Today there are many places where, when frost is pre- dicted. the whistle on factory In village sends forth notes of warning over the farming country for miles around. In other localities the news is given by flags placed where they can be seen at considerable distances. More important than these aids to the Weather Bureau. however. are the rural free delivery. the telegraph and the telephone. The telephone in many regions is rapidly supplanting other agencies and the officials of the Bell Telephone Companies, whose lines reach to all parts of the country. tell many stories of the way in which the news of the coming of the frost Is spread broadcast. In 1903. nearly so,- 900 villages and farms received daily forecasts by telephone, and nearly 5000 had arrangements for receiving special warnings of frost and sudden storm. In 4 that single year the number of places receiving forecasts by telephone in- cpeased by nearly 10000.
 The farmer has a choice of several agencies in protecting his crops from frost. Should stranger in country district see at nigbht the glow of
  drawn around field or orchard. 1t would be erroneous for the visitor to infer that the farmers were using these perambulating bonfires for purposes of a celebration. As a matter of fact, the movable "smudge" is one of the devices for repelling the advance of the legions of General Jack Frost. The purpose of the smudge is to create smoke which hangs like cloud short distance above the surface of the earth and imprisons the heat which would otherwise be radiated through the upper air. Smudges. both of the kind which are hauled from place to place and those which are stationary are used in the fruit orchards of Cali fornia and other Pacific coast States, in the orange groves of Florida, and in the wheat fields of the Dakotas.
 While the smudge Is used for the purpose of creating a cloud of smoke above the surface of the earth and i'm prisoning the heat which would other wise be lost by radiation, fires of 8 different kind are employed to actual ly raise the temperature in an orch- ard. Several years ago, experiments were tried in California in which oil was used as fuel. It made hot fire and was neither expensive nor difficult to manage, but as 1t covered the troes and fruit with lamp black. the system was not regarded as of grsat value Small coal fires. on the other hand. give excellent results. and in the or- ange groves of California sometimes fifty Of them are started in a single acre. This costs about $4 a night, but as the oranges maturing on the trees in that one patch of ground may be worth $400, the money spent for the coal fires Is really pretty cheap insur- ance.
 Another of the methods employed to avert the danger from frosts may be described as the artificial shower. The story of how this is used on one Cali- fornia ranch Is told in a United States government publication. Did 1t come from less reliable source the man who lives in a city and knows little about farming and fruit raising. might put 1t in the class with the sto- ries told by the returning trout fish erman. The owner of this ranch caused to be erected on it number of masts fifty feet high. At the top of each mast was fastened a sprinklinF device through which water could be forced. On nights when the tempera- ture sinks to the frost point. the pumps begin to work. the sprfnklers commence to sprinkle and the air Is filled with a fine spray which so charges 1t with moisture that in near ly every instance the protection given the ripening fruit has been sufficient. The owner of little patch of garden and a garden hose. If he will get up just before sunrise on a frosty. morn ing. may save his precious vegetables