TEMPERATURE — WINTER. 83 



In ordinary winters, days when the thermometer reaches 

 a maximum of 76° are not rare, but those in which the 

 highest point is 60° or 65° are more frequent, while a 

 minimum of 40° is of common occurrence, but these 

 variations are seldom so sudden as to be violent, and 

 when they are it is the chilling northwest wind that is 

 responsible, rushing down without warning or welcome, 

 with a snow storm at its back and a rain storm for Flor- 

 ida in its hand. 



There has been a great deal of foolishness, both written 

 and spoken, about something that does not exist in our 

 beautiful State — "the frost line." It is true that some 

 sections and some localities are less liable to damage from 

 this cause than others, but none can claim certain and 

 uniform exemption, if they ''cling to the truth." 



The frost weaves that occasionally sweep across the State 

 are erratic — they travel by no known route, are governed 

 by no known law. 



For instance, a few years ago, during the march of one 

 of these unwelcome visitors, the thermometer at Tampa 

 marked 39°, while at Fernandina, two hundred miles fur- 

 ther north, it recorded at the same day and hour 54°. 



During the same cold wave tomato vines in Alachua 

 County on the north side of a lake were uninjured, while 

 those over two hundred miles farther south, with water 

 protection, were killed outright. 



Experience has abundantly proven that the effect of 

 cold is dependent on currents of air, and is much modified 

 by water protection. There is no use in trusting to lines 

 of latitude for exemption, for they wdll surely fail some- 

 times ; a frost that visits a locality one time and spares 

 another close by, may do the opposite on its next visit. 



The " frost line" is a myth, and if any claim to be uni- 

 formly "below it" in Florida " the truth is not in them." 



