CHAPTER XIII 



THE WEATHER 



No matter how well we may have attended to all the 

 things mentioned as favoring good crops, unfavorable 

 weather may greatly reduce, or even destroy them. 



What we call weather means chiefly four things: 

 1. Heat and cold, or " temperature." 2. Sunshine or 

 cloudiness. 3. Rain, snow, or hail. 4. Winds. We 

 call the weather good or bad according to whether we 

 like it, or it favors what we wish to do or to have 

 done. 



Where irrigation is not practiced, as in the Eastern 

 states, farmers depend entirely upon rains for their 

 crops. There, a failure of rain for a few weeks during 

 the growing season may almost destroy the crop, 

 because the soils are shallow and the roots are near the 

 surface. So in the arid regions we have in irrigation, 

 and in our deep soils, great preventives of crop failures. 

 Yet even with irrigation, a hot, dry norther and hot 

 sun may sometimes shrivel the heads of grain, or the 

 leaves or flowers of fruit trees and vines. Or a " cold 

 snap " or frost may damage or wholly destroy fruit 

 blossoms or vegetables. Or an early-sown crop, just 



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