Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 35, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 May 1903 — RUIN BY JACK FROST. [ARTICLE]

RUIN BY JACK FROST.

FARM AND GARDEN CROPS INJURED BY COLD. Frigid Wave Causes Great Damage Throughout the West—Loss Is in the Millions— Cotton and Corn in the Bouth Must Be Replanted. The recent wintry weather has cost fanners and gardeners millions of dollars and given a setback to early vegetation from which the people of the en-tirer-cojintry will suffer. Killing frosts from theln-ke region as far south as Tennessee and Arkansas and light to heavy frosts in northern Texas have ruined many crops and retarded nearly all-oth-ers.' . Michigan peach trees, ever the subject of solicitude in unseasonably cold weather, are believed to be considerably damaged, but the exact conditions have not yet been ascertained.' Ice an inch thick formed on ponds in the vicinity of Benton Harbor and St. Joseph, near the southern edge of the famous fruit territory in the western part of the State. The blossoms on the trees were just coming into bloom. But the injury to the smaller fruits and vegetables throughout the wide area covered by the cold warve can be told immediately. With a temperature that went below the freezing point in Illinois and Indiana after the vegetation had obtained a good start the growers find that from 25 to 75 per cent -of their crops have been badly damaged or killed. Strawberries, asparagus, potatoes and other products of the soil suffered severely from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast. Cotton and corn in Oklahoma and Indian Territory will have to be replanted. The cold was fatal to young live stock in a number of localities, and not a few farmers face almost total ruin. All along the Arkansas valley the ipjury to crops has been great, but not "less than in northern New Y’ork, where snow fell as heavily in the Adirondacks as it did at Duluth, Minn.