The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1912-04-04
E. A. BEALES ISSUES
FORECAST BOOKLET

forecasting Frost in the North
| Pacific States, is the title Of bulle-
tin written by Edward A. Beales, dis
| trict forecaster Of the weather bun meau
I with headquarters in Portland, issued
/ by the United States department Of
/ agriculture, and prepared under the
direction Of Willis l.. Moore, chief Of
the United States weather bureau.
The bulletin may be obtained from the
superintendent Of documents, govern
ment printing Office, Washington, d.
c., at 10 cents per copy.
The work is the result of many
years study Of the weather conditions
in the Pacific Northwest and will be
of tremendous value to fruit growers,
who employ scientific methods for pre-
venting damage by late frosts. 1t tells
when and under what circumstances
such frosts may be expected. and the
weather conditions preceding them.
"Fruitraising in the North Pacific
states has Increased enormously in the
last few years, says the author, 'and
the number of trees that will come
into bearing in the next five or six
years will increase the acreage at least
tenfold. In the early days of the in
dustry the principal crop was prunes,
and the large orchards were mostly in
the humid sections of Oregon and
Washington. There were very few
large apple and pear orchards, and
those in bearing were nearly all To-
Gated where the air drainage was good
and the losses by spring frosts were
infrequent. Ia the case of prunes,
many of the growers believed that
when they had short crops the damage
was done by cold rains during the bios.
soming period, which prevented the
bees from carrying the pollen to the
stigmata, and the fruit did not set on
that account, rather than because of
injury by frost "
Since then, he explains, investiga-
tlons have proved that to spring frosts
were due in a large measure these oc-
easional light crops, and growers rap
IDLY began to experiment with artiii-
cial means for raising the temperature
in the orchards.
In this connection, Mr.. Beals gives a
great deal Of credit to P. j. O'Gara,
one Of the scientific assistants in the
bureau Of plant industry, who in 1907
was sent to the Rogue river valley to
study the pear blight, which was max
ing inroads among the pear and Spit,
zenberg apple trees in that section.
He introduced methods for heating
similar to those with which he had be-
come familiar in California and with
excellent results.
AS soon as an orchardist was pre-
pared to heat his orchards. continued
Mr. Beals, "the question of accurate
frost warnings became of paramount
Importance, and as the number in
creased the question became accentu-
ated. The owners aud managers of
these orchards had gone to the expense
of thousands of dollars for material to
insure their crops from damage by
frost, and they were not satisfied with
warning classified as a light or
heavy frost, where in one case the
minimum temperature in a standard
thermometer shelter was expected to
remain above % degrees aud in the
other sink below that point. They
want to know just how cold it will get
and just when it will be necessary to
start their fires. They also want this
information as far ahead of each inn
pending frost as possible.
To impart this information is the
purpose of the bulletin, which carries
d number of tables showing thermom.
eter readings and weather observations
taken in the various fruit districts
during spring.