44 KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 



LONG PERIOD OF ABSENCE OF FROST. 



An important point to be noticed in considering the preceding 

 table is the long period of absence of frost. The average date of 

 the last light frost of spring is April 15th; that of the first light 

 frost in autumn is September 25th, giving an average interval of 164 

 days entirely without frost. The period of immunity from severe 

 frosts is considerably longer, averaging 194 days, from about the 

 fifth of April to the fifteenth of October. The April frosts are not 

 often severe enough to materially injure fruit buds. In April, 1868, 

 the thermometer marked seven degrees below the freezing point, 

 but the fruit crop was not damaged, though peaches, pears and plums 

 were in full blossom at the time. In April, 1870, however, on the 

 sixteenth, the mercury fell thirteen degrees below the freezing point 

 and nearly all pears, plums, early apples and budded peaches were 

 killed; while grapes, strawberries and other small fruits were almost 

 entirely uninjured. Of all our leading fruits the peach alone is 

 sometimes fatally affected by the extreme cold of winter, as was 

 the case in December, 1868, and December, 1872. Under ordinary 

 circumstances the peach bud seems incapable of surviving a greater 

 intensity of cold than fifteen degrees below zero. From the two 

 causes already mentioned, the Occasional very severe frosts of April 

 and the extreme cold of winter, a good crop of peaches cannot rea- 

 sonably be expected in Kansas in a series of years oftener than 

 about half the time. Thus, in 1868, 1871, and 1872, this fruit was 

 produced in great abundance, while in 1869, 1870, and 1873 (speak- 

 ing prospectively of the latter year), the supply was exceedingly 

 deficient, and limited almost entirely to late-ripening seedlings. 



The preceding remarks will serve to show the necessity of choos- 

 ing the best location for an orchard and the best varieties of fruit. 

 A northern slope is preferable to a southern, since in the former 

 location the buds are less liable to be prematurely expanded ; the 

 upland prairie is preferable to the bottom lands because the frosts 

 are less severe as elevation above the streams is increased; and those 

 varieties of fruit should take precedence which are most likely to 

 postpone the period of blossoming until after the severe frosts of 

 early spring. The foregoing observations will serve to show that so 

 far as temperature is concerned the climate of Kansas is naturally 

 adapted to the successful production of the great staples of agricul- 

 ture peculiar to the middle latitudes of the United States. Indeed 

 the long period of freedom from frost, and the prolonged heat of 

 the summer season would seem at least to invite experiment in the 

 culture of crops generally considered to belong to a more southerly 

 latitude. 



