102 EXPERIMENTAL FARMS 



2 GEORGE V.,. A. 1912 



CHARACTER OF SEASON. 



The frost was out of the ground enough to dig in the nursery at the Central 

 Experimental Farm by March 28, 1910, and the upper part of the orchard could have 

 been ploughed on that date. The average date when the frost had been out enough to 

 dig for the previous twelve years was April 11, although, leaving out the two exception- 

 ally early years 1902 and 1903, the average date for the remaining ten years is April 

 14. The season up to the end of April was earlier than the average. The highest 

 temperature in April was 76° Fahr., on the 5th, and the lowest 22° Fahr. on the 13th. 

 May was a rather cool month on the whole and comparatively late. The highest tempera- 

 ture was 79-5° Fahr. on the 29th and the lowest 31° Fahr. on the 13th. No frosts 

 were recorded during the month of May and, although the lowest temperature recorded 

 in June was 32-5° Fahr., on June 4, frost affected crops that night. Strawberry flowers 

 were much injured. The foliage of tomato plants was frozen and the plants in most 

 cases killed to the ground. Grapes were more or less injured on the Farm and, in some 

 parts of Ottawa, the crop was destroyed. Some Americana plums, which were just 

 setting, were injured. While the fore part of the month was cool, the latter part of 

 the month was warm to very warm, the temperature being 80° Fahr. on sixteen out of 

 the eighteen days between the 13th and the end of the month, although the nights were 

 comparatively cool. The highest temperature was 89-4° Fahr. on the 22hd. There 

 was little precipitation in June. Strawberries were suffering badly from lack of mois- 

 ture on the 25th, and the crop proved almost a failure owing to the drought. Those 

 which ripened had, most of them, hard tips. There w>as a very heavy drop of apples 

 during the last week in June, doubtless owing to the drought. The closely-planted 

 Wealthy orchard, which is in sod, lost most fruit and a crop that promised to be good 

 became light. The grass of the lawns was much burned during the last week of 

 June and continued burned until August 4. 



The month of July was warm and dry. The highest temperature was 92-8° Fahr. 

 on the 9th, and on the 6th it was 92-0° Fahr. It was 80-0° Fahr. and above on twenty- 

 two days of the month. While the days were warm, the nights, on the whole, were com- 

 paratively cool. Showers started on the 21st, and, from that time on there were fre- 

 quent rains throughout the rest of the growing season, though vegetation did not begin 

 to recover much until after a heavy rain on August 4, as the previous showers had been 

 light. The highest temperature in August was 87-2° Fahr. on the 3rd; the nights con- 

 tinued comparatively cool through this month. September was moderately warm with 

 a maximum temperature of 77° Fahr. on the 17th. There was no frost recorded in 

 September, the lowest temperature observed being 35-8° Fahr. on the 22nd. In Octo- 

 ber, the highest temperature was 73° on the 5th. The first autumn frost was on October 

 8. wdien the temperature was 31° Fahr. The foliage of tender plants, such as tomatoes, 

 squash, etc., was injured in some situations. In other places, the foliage was little, if any, 

 injured. On the 13th, the temperature dropped to 25° Fahr., when the tenderer things 

 were killed. The foliage of the grape vines was injured on this date. The growth of 

 fruit trees was late, the wood did not ripen as well as was desirable in the autumn, and 

 it is probable there will be considerable winter injury on this account. November was 

 a cool month with fairly even temperatures, the highest being 57-2° Fahr. on the 1st, 

 and the lowest 17° Fahr. on the 21st.. Winter set in on the 27th with the ground 

 frozen to a depth of three or four inches. 



The weather in December, January, February and March was cold, the thaws 

 being of short duration. The first time the temperature rose as high as 40° Fahr. 

 from November 5 was on March 20. 



While the temperature did not go to twenty degrees below zero except on Decem- 

 ber 31, when it was 25-2° Fahr., the coldest day of the winter, it was below zero fifty 

 times during the winter, thirteen in December, eighteen in January, thirteen in Febru- 



