FROSTBITE 



2344 



FRUIT 



illation on a window pane occurs when the air 

 out-of-doors is below 32, the moisture being 

 deposited on the glass in the form of tiny 

 prisms of ice. 



When the sky is cloudy at night the ground 

 cools less quickly than on clear nights, and 

 for that reason frost and dew are less plenti- 



These winter -nights against my window pane 



Nature with busy pencil draws designs 



Of ferns and blossoms and fine spray of pines, 



Oak leaf and acorn and fantastic vines 



Which she will make when summer comes again. 



T. B. ALDRICH : Frost- Work. 

 At left, in illustration : branching hoar frost. 

 At right : crystalline window frost. 



ful after a cloudy night. In the growing sea- 

 son farmers and fruit-growers watch the sky 

 closely on chilly evenings. A cloudless sky is 

 often a cause for anxiety, because frost is de- 

 structive to growing things. This is due to 

 the fact that the juice of the plants, which is 

 largely water, swells on freezing and bursts 

 the delicate cells. Because of the damage done 

 by late spring and early fall frosts, the subject 

 of protection' from frost has been made a mat- 

 ter of special study by the United States 

 Weather Bureau, and the results are summa- 

 rized in a bulletin entitled On Frost Protec- 

 tion. See DEW. C.R.M. 



FROST 'BITE, a term applied to the effect 

 of extreme cold on some part of the body. 

 Mild cases are known as chilblains, and these 

 occur usually on the hands and feet. The 

 parts affected have a purplish-red color and 

 are somewhat swollen, attended at times with 

 itching and pain. Chilblains appear in the 

 spring and fall, or in winter during damp 

 weather. When first frozen the treatment con- 

 sists of rubbing the frost-bitten parts with 

 snow or ice, in order to restore slowly the 

 natural warmth and avoid a violent reaction 

 which might cause disease of the bone and 

 soft tissues. In extremely severe cases of freez- 

 ing, the affected parts may decay and drop 

 off; if the spread of the trouble is not promptly 

 arrested gangrene may develop and delirium 

 and death result. See GANGRENE. 



FROUDE, jrood, JAMES ANTHONY (1818- 

 1894), an English historian, of whom it is said 

 that he was more a man of letters than an his- 

 torian, as he was prone to distort facts. This 

 tendency to misstate was not a conscious one, 

 perhaps, but he selected certain details and 

 suppressed others for the sake of making his 

 heroes appear brighter and his villains darker. 

 The first two volumes of his History of Eng- 

 land appeared in 1856, and attracted a great 

 deal of attention on account of the author's 

 brilliant style and the boldness of his opinions. 

 After his visit to the United States in 1872 on 

 a lecture tour he published his lectures under 

 the title English Misrule in Ireland. He was 

 the friend of Carlyle, whose literary executor 

 he became. After Carlyle's death Froude pub- 

 lished The Reminiscences oj Carlyle, Letters 

 and Memorials of Jane Carlyle, and Thomas 

 Carlyle: a History. In 1892 Froude succeeded 

 the historian Freeman as regius professor 6f 

 history at Oxford. His lectures were after- 

 wards published in a volume entitled Erasmus. 

 Among Froude's other works are The English 

 in Ireland in the Eighteenth Century and Life 

 of Lord ^Beaconsfield. 



FRUIT, jrute, a word which in botany refers 

 to the seed of a plant and its covering. The 

 fruit appears in widely different forms, as the 

 pods of peas or nuts of trees, or tomatoes or 

 apples. In a general and more popular sense, 

 however, the name refers only to such edible 

 products of certain plants as are used for food 

 as desserts, in the raw, dried or cooked state. 

 The apple, pear, peach, plum, cherry, orange, 

 lemon, date and fig are among the most fa- 

 miliar fruits in America.' 



The cultivation of fruits is one of the most 

 important industries. North America ranks 

 first in quantity and variety produced, and in 

 the use of scientific methods of production. 

 The American states east of the Rocky Moun- 

 tains are supplied with grapes and raisins, cit- 

 rous fruits, fresh and canned peaches, pears, 

 cherries and apricots by the fruit-growers of 

 California. Canada receives a portion of the 

 crop, as its yearly fruit production of $13,000,- 

 000 worth seldom meets the demand. During 

 the winter months Northern markets are fur- 

 nished with strawberries, peaches and other 

 fruits grown in the states along the Gulf of 

 Mexico. Fresh apples, lemons, bananas and 

 oranges may now be purchased the year round, 

 and pears, strawberries, grapes and peaches 

 have much longer seasons than formerly. 

 Fruits play an important part in international 



