FROST READINGS

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 187, 25 August 1937, Page 4

FROST READINGS

American Methods of Recording Since the reliability of frost reading* taken in Cornwall Park, Hastings, is sometimes questioned, particular interest was taken in a description of how froste are recorded in the United States% which was given by Mr Lloyd Williams, - in au address ou frost- - fighting in Hastings last night, Frost xecordings in America woje always taken in standard thermometer , shelters, standing four and a-half feet from the ground on legs, Mr "Williams said. The thermometer was enelosed in a box of dime^sions of about 2 feet by 18 inches by 18 inches. The box was constructed to allow the air to pass freely through it. An exposed thermometer was useless, as it recorded merely its own temperature| not that of the air round it. "In New Zealand we aie inclined to speak of ground temperatures, but 1 orchardists should get out of the habit of doing this," said Mr Williams. The i practice was very detrimental. In America frosts were never spokcn of as a certain "number of degreea in intensity." The term "degree" was unknown there in this connection. The thermometer reading was always given as the frost reading. A four-degrce frost would be 26 there (allowing for our use of 30 as freezing point). Mr Williams also considered that orehardiste should use 32 degrees as the basis for their own observations.