Fortunes for Farmers 



to the worst worry that haunts the farmer. In 

 his ploughing, sowing, or reaping, he will be thus 

 guided, everything will be done at the right time 

 and will be well done, for work conducted at a 

 wrong time is better left undone altogether. 

 Further, we shall guard against sudden storms 

 or frosts. In the fruit and flower districts, in all 

 those parts where a belated spring frost may 

 spell ruin and the destruction of a whole year's 

 work in one night, the warnings will be gratefully 

 received. Elaborate precautions will be taken, 

 straw or matting will come into play, gigantic 

 fires lighted in orchards, hot water conveyed 

 here or there and possibly electricity will warm 

 the soil and repel the dreaded frost. Everywhere, 

 forewarned, tender buds and shoots would be 

 protected somehow. 



How far we may be able to pervert the weather 

 and train the course of nature to our desires 

 is beyond our knowledge. The phenomena of the 

 universe march on so vast a scale that our inter- 

 ference is perhaps laughable. Still we have done 

 much, and that must be the measure of our 

 future. We have chained the sea, drained, and 

 driven back our rivers and waters everywhere, 

 and who shall say what we may not achieve with 

 the atmosphere? The bridling of the Nile, the 

 irrigation of deserts, the drainage of swamps 



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