The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1904-12-02
Indian Summer.

No period of the year excels in lowell
ness the one sometimes known as "the
fifth season." Beginning about the mid
die of October, it is often prolonged into
December. It's characteristics are a
calm, soft, hazy atmosphere, through
which day after day the sun, shorn of his
beams, rises and sets like a sphere of
copper or gold, according to each be-
holders degree of poetic perception.
Sounds at great distances are distinctly
audible. Objects, unless close by, are
discerned with difficulty. All nature, as
if to prepare itself against the blasts of
winter, appears somnolent. The morn
ings are cool, with lowland fogs soon dis
sipated by the sun, and the atmosphere
maintains stiffness which scarcely stirs
the richly tinted but rapidly fading foil
age.
The northern hemisphere enjoys the
finest displays of this supplementary
season, the geographic limits of which
the records of meteorologists and eli
matologists enable us to define. It's
characteristics are particularly notice
able in the far Northwest. Matthew
Macfe, F. r. G. S., is authority for the
statement that in Vancouver Island and
other portions of British America there
Is a second growth of verdure lasting
until after Christmas. This period an
nually beauties the zone running
through New England and Canada west
ward to Lakes Michigan and Superior,
thence southwark to Kansas and Ne
braska, and, including Minnesota, the
Dakotas, Montana, Wyoming, Idaho,
Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, and
Northern California, northwestward over
British America to the Arctic Circle.
While it does not extend into the lower
limits of the United States, it is referred
to by two or three of the historians of
Mexico.
Formerly the smokiness and the some
what greater degree of warmth were
thought to be caused by mountain fires,
or the burning Of the vegetable decidua
collected in the autumn for that pur-
pose. The haze and increased warmth
are due to the annual formation of what
has been termed the aerial Gulf
Stream" or "vapor plane" This high
current, generated in equatorial seas by
ascending masses of vapor- charged air,
flows northward through the upper at
mosphere, oversweeps the Southern and
Gulf States, and descends toward the
earth or ocean as it approaches New
England or Canada on it's journey toward
the polar circle. In the afternoon and
night, when the earth throws off the
heat received during the day, especially
in the autumn weeks, when the temper
allure is declining and the capacity of
the air to retain moisture is on the de-
crease. the presence of this mantle of
vapor arrests radiation. The heat-ab.
sorbing power of this blanket of aque
GUS vapor" has been clearly demonstrate
ed by Prof. Tyndall. Covering the re-
naming vegetation and the harvests as
with shield, it protracts the grain rip
ening period to meet the necessities OF
the higher ATTITUDES.
In Indian summer and all its cOgnates
Nature discloses brighter purpose than
mere scenic display. In it may be rec
ognized the gigantic and ever-active at
mospheric forces, which not only tenn
per the regions from which the sun
makes an early autumn retreat, but or
dain fertility, verdure, and health over
vast territories of the earth.-Scientitic
American.