Rensselaer Journal, Volume 10, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 April 1901 — Farmers’ “Dead Line.” [ARTICLE]

Farmers’ “Dead Line.”

In the longitude of the agricultural “dead line” which trails its sinuous course from the British possessions south to Mexico, marking limits beyond which it is not safe to plow or plant, and extending for a distance of 200 miles east; or on the cropping side of such line, will be found a climatic condition marked by what are locally known as “hot winds.” This is a strong wind from the southwest, superheated to a temperature running from 100 to 115 degrees Fahrenheit in the shade, robbed of every particle of moisture, usually of not less than two days’ continuance and fatal to almost all forms of farm crops when in the bloom or grain forming stages. This hot wind is one of the climatic freaks which annually destroy%iillions of dollars’ worth of farm crops in the territory named, and one which is hard to fight against. No one thing will so curtail and modify the destructive power of these winds as the planting of groves of timber on every farm —Bradford Republican.