ONTBE in)SSIlULlTYOF PIIEVENTIXG DAMAGES 



BY FROST. 



By P. OLSSON-SEFFER, Ph. D. 



(Read before the Uoi/al Societi/ of Queensland, 2ni( Awjust, 1902.) 



In his first report on the sugar industry of Queensland, Dr. W. 

 Maxwell says : — " The occurrence of killing frosts in any district 

 appears to be so rare as to cause special remark when it occurs, 

 which indicates conditions very far removed from those obtaining 

 in such a sugar-growing country as Louisiana, where frost is 

 an annual occurrence, and where precautions are regularly taken 

 to protect some part of the crop against its action." 



Only a few days previous to my reading this passage I had 

 been an eye-witness to the damages done by frost to sugar-cane 

 and to some other crops in the Maroochy district. Shortly after- 

 wards I experienced three nights of severe frost in the "Wide Bay 

 district, close to the coast, and I was assured by cane-growers 

 and farmers there that frost with damaging results was by no 

 means so infrequent in South Queensland. 



Nothing is more discouraging for the farmer, who perhaps 

 has toiled for a whole year, than to see his promising crop killed 

 by one night's frost. A killing frost is not a yearly occurrence.. 

 If it were so the farmer would most likely be prepared for it, but 

 as several years slip by without an attack from the enemy, he is 

 lulled into security, and only when the damage is done does he 

 wake to the fact that he might have averted the misfortune. 



Can this be done ? Is there any prevention against the 

 result of frost? Certainly there are means of preventing damages 

 by frost, but it is necessary to have a certain amount of experience 

 when taking these protective measures, so as not to cause a still 

 greater damage by the preventives than by the frost itself. 



