Today’s writing is a excerpt taken from a March 25 1971 column written by Wally Smith entitled “Chill in the Air”

Records over the last 10 to 15 years point to what would appear to be a gradual cooling trend and a shortening of the growing period.

Weather records at Summerland show there were only 163 frost free days in 1970 compared with a 55 year average of 176 days. Shortest season on record was 150 days in 1916 and again in 1948.

There is a growing strength in the belief that the world is cooling off, that winters are getting longer and summers are getting shorter. This may be due to changing sun spots but a contributory cause may be air pollution caused by the discharge of industrial waste gases and solid particles, and the burning of huge quantities of petroleum products by our land, sea, and air transportation systems.

The world, at least the northern half of it, has experienced ice ages of the past. Scientists speculate there may have been air pollution even in those days, pollution caused by volcanic dust and gasses belched into the atmosphere during a period when there was a great deal of volcanic activity.

Whatever the cause of those early ice ages, and particularly today’s “cooling off” period, it poses a threat to the fruit growing industry and especially to those tree fruits most vulnerable to spring frosts.

However, spring frost is something the grower can cope with most of the time if he has an adequate orchard heating system and a knowledge of how and when to use it.

A winter freeze is something different but even here there is hope for the grower, hope in the form of new and hardier varieties.

Winters and growing seasons may be growing colder but modern technology and plant breeding may give us a chance to hold our own, and so end up with technology finding a solution to the problem it created.

email: ruralreportwithlairdsmith@gmail.com