Abstract
Frost on the Farm The rather early incidence of heavy frosts this winter affects the farm in several ways. There is of course little anxiety about potatoes and mangolds in store, for it is only in exceptionally cold weather, when frost is accompanied by wind, that clamped roots suffer damage. Roots in the field are not free from danger at these times, although swedes and sugar beet standing undisturbed in the ground can resist quite heavy frost, the latter in particular with their heavy covering of leaves and high concentration of sugar in the sap being relatively immune from damage while still unpulled. Kales on the other hand, being quite exposed to the weather, lose much leaf in severe frost, and in this way the loss falls on the part of the plant of highest nutritive value. Moreover, if frozen roots or kale are fed off by stock, a considerable amount of energy is required to raise the food to body temperature, so that more supplementary food is required than would otherwise be the case. Sugar beet standing uncovered in the field or in heaps by the roadside is in most danger at these times. The roots at the outside of the heaps are liable to be frozen, and on thawing out the roots fall to a pulp and decomposition sets in. Roots that have been touched by frost should be worked up at the earliest opportunity; in any case they tend to complicate the process of extraction in the factory.
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Calendar of Nature Topics. Nature 132, 1013–1014 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/1321013b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/1321013b0