1 Dec., 1899.] QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JOURNAL. 521 
Agriculture, 
ABOUT EARLY AND LATE FROSTS AND OTHER TROUBLES. 
By HENRY A. TARDENT, 
Manager, Biggenden Experiment Farm’ 
Sap news indeed flashed over Queensland on the mornings of the 2tid, 3d, atid 
4th October last. A sharp frost had swooped over a large portion of the 
colony, injuring valuable fruit trees and grape vines, killing English and sweet 
potatoes, tomatoes, melons, pumpkins, and, what is worse still, doitig great havoc 
amongst the waving wheattields of the Downs. In most iistaficés thé wheats 
were precisely at the critical stage when the plant is inost sétisitive to cold, so 
that in many cases the crop of grain is irremediably comprotiised. 
Many a farmer who had gone to bed full of hopes for a bounteous harvest 
woke up the following morning to find those hopes vanished like so many soap 
bubbles, and many a month of hard work rendered practically useless. 
In view of such an extensive disaster, the question naturally arises: Is 
there any possibility of protecting our crops against it? At first sight it seems 
there is not. The meteorological phenomena themselves are, so far, beyond our 
control ; still we should not give up all hopes. If we cannot prevent a wave 
of cold sweeping over the continent, we can at least dispute with it our crops 
in detail, inch by inch, so to say. ‘To begin with, of recent years meteorology 
has advanced enough to be able to foretell a frost from 24 to 48 houts in 
advance. ‘This is already an important point gained. A warning of such a 
length enables one to make some preparations for saving at least part of 
one’s crop. Even those who are beyond the reach of Mr. Wragge’s forecasts 
could have remarked that on Sunday, 1st October, the wind was blowing 
with considerable force from the west and south-west. At this time of the 
year this is a sure indication of an important fall of temperature, especially 
when the sky remains clear. Old residents are also well aware that nearly 
every year a more or less severe wave of cold visits the colony during the first 
fortnight in October. We should watch and be prepared for it. A couple of 
years ago I had, on the Westbrook Experiment Farm, on the 12th of October, a 
frost sharp enough to blacken the leaves of French beans, 
Besides meteorology, other laws of Nature are being graduitlly discovered. 
That welcome knowledge helps us to cope with difficulties which appeared forinerly 
insuperable. or instance, if your farm is situated in the neighbourhood of a 
hill, you will have remarked that towards the morning the ¢éold is itituch more 
intense at the foot of the hill, in the hollow, along the bottom of the valley, 
than on the top. If you have not remarked it, at least yotr cattle did. If 
they have access to the hill, they will invariably, during a cold nizht, work their 
way up the top. This seems to prove that during the night, there is a double 
current of air between the low-lying and the higher situated places. The hot 
air (during the day the air is hotter in the valley) ascends the hill whilst the 
cold air descends from the top. Now, by establishing thick living hedges of 
privet, or African thorn, or even tree lucerne, or some itiore substantial break-_ 
winds of taller trees, such as camphor laurels, Pinus insignis, &c., we cain retaid 
that double current, that exchange of hot and cold div, and this improve, so to. 
say, the climate of our farm. 
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