OOaOOOOOOOOOSCOOOOOOQQCCKg 8 H ow Tft ß H Protßct § | the Qraqge groves § | in F^ or^a - § O 8 O 15r I>. Allen Wllloy, of Itultliiiore. O 0 o oooooooooooooooocooooooooo 1 For the last live years parts of Cen tral and Southern Florida have been ,'Visited by freezing weather for the first time In the history of that beauti ful State. This section of the United States Is one of the centres for the pro duction of oranges and bananas, and large quantities of vegetables are also raised during the winter to be sold in the Northern cities. The first visita tion of frost found most of the orange growers altogether unprepared for it, and the result was that in a siugle Bight plantations covering fully fifty square miles were utterly and hope lessly ruined. The action of the frost turned the leaves from green to black, and the steins of the oranges shriv elled so that the fruit fell to the ground frozen and worthless. In some cases where the earth deeply covered the roots of the trees i little life was left, 112. 11 Tn— <• J ' v > 7. SQUARE TEXT WITII WOODEN FRAME WORK, SHOWING CLOTH COVERING ROLLED UP. and the growers were able to start them again by cutting the trunk of the tree down to a few inches from the ground. The destruction was terrible.. Entire groves, ranging from fifty to 100 acres in extent, were taken up by the roots, burned and the ashes used to fertilize slips from which new or chards were to be raised. Various plans have since been ar ranged to protect.the groves from cold weather, and,«Ss>l result, the visitor to Florida in January can ride a hun dred miles through orange groves which are inclosed in vast, covered-in bouses, and siugle trees which are INTEIiIOU Ul' A SUEL» COVEKING A.\ uIiA.NOL UUUVJi O*' 'XiliitTY SEVEN AGUES. carefully covered by tents. Not only i are they protected by cloth and wood, ' but heat In various forms Is also pro- s vided to keep the air warm enough, so that the growing fruit, as well as the i smaller branches, will remain unin- i jured. The houses, or sheds, cover from an acre* to forty acres of ground. - The accompanying large picture is a Oli I'lsss' 1 l ! V . ,\! ■ i. tl s ** AUa SAME TENT AS IT LOOKS WHEN TOE COLl) WEATHER CALLS XJPON IT TO PRO TECT ITS DELICATE OCCUPANT. section of a thirty-seveu-acre shod, as | ' It is termed, built near Deland, Fla. ' In constructing a shed rows of j)lne posts, each six inches square, are erected from ten feet to lifteen feet apart. These are connected liy string ers nailed to the tops of the posts, and are also supported by wooden braces projecting diagonally. The framework is covered at .besides with pine boards, Ithe ends of which overlap like the clap boards of a dwelling. The sides are put together in sections, so that thoy can be moved on rollers—forming huge sliding doors. The roof is formed of thin boards a foot in width, fastened Into sockets in the stringers, like the slats of a window-shutter or blind. Sections of the slats are connected with wiring or small ropes, so that by pull ing the wire the row of slats can be closed or opened at any angle desired. The shed is about twenty feet in height. As a full-grown orange tree seldom ranges over twelve feet in Florida ample space Is afforded for air !to circulate above the top branches. All the sheds or houses are con structed of pine, btjt, instead of the slat roof, some have the top covered with thin boards, sliding in grooves, so that any portion cf the roof can be removed In a few minutes if desired. The sides of some of the sheds are also made upon the slat principle, so that ill A ROUND TENT OPEN ON A FINE, BUNNY DAT. they may be opened or closed like the roof of the shed first described. The tents are only made to protect single trees, and an orchard thus cov ered looks from a distance like a mili tary encampment. One form of tent is part wood and j)art cloth. Four posts of pine are fastened in the ground, upholding a framework on which boards are nailed. Below the stationary framework Is another which slides up and down the outside of the posts, which are placed outside the tree to be protected. Between the movable and the stationary frame work are tacked strips of cloth, sewed together and covered with a mixture of paraffin or other solution to pro tect It from the action of the weather. When the tent is opened the cloth is neatly tucked In place between the framework at the top, resembling an accordion when shut up. By pulling a small cord the movable framework Is released and drops to the ground, completely covering the tree. At a dis tance of 100 feet it looks like an ordin ary wooden shed. The round tent commonly used is supported on a 'rameworlc like the ribs of an umbrel la; but Instead of the centre stick be ing straight it is composed of two pieces, and near the top of the tree It self an arm projects inwardly at an angle. The main stick is composed of a post about three inches square, planted to a depth of several feet in the ground. The end of the "tent" is fastened to it by large tacks, and the ribs which hold the cloth in place when the tent Is spread are made of light wooden strips fastened to the material in the same way, at intervals of from one foot to two feet, accord ing to its size. Around the tree Is placed a hoop of hardwood firmly braced, which answers to the wires extending from the centre stick of the extending from the centre stick of the "umbrella" to its ribs. When it is de sired to close the tent the cord fasten in.tr he cloth to the main post is uni tei and merely drawn around the hoop. It completely hides the tree from view, and is kept from falling open by tying the ends together as in an ordinary tent. Most of the tent cloth is of light weight sheeting or thin cotton duck, covered on the outside with some com pound which will keep it from being affected by mildew or from rotting. It is sewed with heavy linen thread, and fastened to the framework as se curely as possible to prevent the ma terial from being torn by the high winds which frequently accompany changes of weather in Florida. Some of the grove-owners remove tiie sheds and tents in the spring and replace at the beginning of win ter in oider to give the trees the bene lit of the light and air. In ordinary weather the roofs and sides of the sheds are left open, as otherwise the fruit would not mature rapidly enough and would be of a poor quality. At ' ' TENT OPEN ON THE SUNNY AND CLOSED ON THE NORTH, OR COLD, SIDE, all of the towns in the orange-grow ing centre are telegraph offices con nected with the United States Signal Fervlee Bureau at Washington. If a "cold wave* Is predicted the frult grgwers order all of tlielr employes Into the groves to close the sheds and draw the tents. These coverings will keep the air from fifteen degrees to twenty degrees warmer than witho*t the protection; but it may be necessary to use artificial heat. In the large sheds fires of pine wood are sometimes made, but as there is danger of ig niting the framework from the sparks "salamanders" arc preferred. These are merely large rings of cast iron which overlap each other and in which coke or wood can be burned. They dis tribute the heat much mo;e than an ordinary stove and confine the sparks. Stoves are also used in various forms according to the size of the shed, and the heat is conveyed by means of long stretches of sheet-iron pipe through the rows of trees. In the tents hand lamps are placed. A lamp containing a pint of oil will burn eighteen hours and furnish enough heat properly to warm the air around a ten-foot orange tree.—The World Wide Magazine. THE INDEP ENDENCE. BUTTER IN BRICKS. Rapid Production of Attractive One or ' Two l'ouml Blocks. Grocers nnd other retailers of but ter buy a good deal of that commodi ty by the tub, and soil it in small quantities. In order to save time when several customers are wait ing, It will be an advantage to have the stuff cut up in advance into one or two pound bricks. Anticipating a rush, many grocers put sugar and tea up in ready-made paiC2'«. But each lot is carefully weighed out uy itself. An ingenious Western inventor has thought of a way to cut a tub of but ter up into blocks on the wholesale plan. For this work a machine is used, a part of which Is shown in the draw ing. The frame holding the cross wirt can be slipped up and down and entir 1y removed from the uprights. This is done at the beginning of the operations. A tub of butter is turned out on the criss-cross wooden block, pains being taken to keep it square and even. Then on one of the corner posts is iemporrvlly hinged three hor izontal wires tightly stretched one above the other. By swinging this frame sideways slowly and steadily the wires will cut the- mass of butter into four layers. The uppermost is very thin and doesn't count. The others are of uniform thickness. The lirst cut Is now detached from the machine J - P ; | BUTTER CUTTING DEVICE. and the other frame litted on over the four posts. This is forced downward steadily until the wires have cut to the bottom, and then raised again. By turning the wooden block a quar ter way round, and repeating the cut ting operation, the butter will be re duced to blocks of the desired shape. It is claimed that the wires can be ad justed so as to vary the weight from half a pound to two pounds. A gauge shows how to set them. The imper fect bricks may be packed in a mold furnished with the machines, which, when full, is overturned on the board nnd two cuts are made with the frame to produce sixteen more bricks. llow far the well-known difference in the density of butter would offset the weight of the bricks is a nice ques tion.—New York Tribune. What Are We Coming; To? The fond mother had just killed tc-n of her twelve children. She was a happy wife and her hus band came home early every night. "Now," she said with a contented sigh, "John can close with the agent for that house." This was twenty years from now, when no landlord would accept a ten ant with more than two children.— New York Sun. .. . | The Independence | ;■ in Racing Trim. | The Independence, the Lawgon boat which is to try her metal against the Constitution, has been putin racing trim. A coat of silver gray paint was applied to the steel topsldes and as the color is a trifle lighter than the cement paint ■which was on before she looks much neater. A stripe, be ginning with a scroll at the bow and ending in one at the stern, was put ou in gold leaf. On deck, the canvas cov ering has been painted a light green shade, while the steel waterways were given a coat of yellow. An important change will be the shifting forward of the steel mast. It was found that it had a little too much rake aft and to remeay this the wedges on the forward side of tho mast will be thinned down an Inch, while those at the rear are replaced by thicker ones. Blocks are to be substituted for the bell-mouthed jibsheet leads immedi ately. The latter are immovable anuilt all the material universe into oi.e world and swung it, a glorious mass, through immensity, but behold His wis dom in dividing up the grandeurs into in numerable worlds, rolling splendors on all sides, diversity, amplitude, majesty, in finity. Worlds, worlds, moving in com plete order, shining with complete ra diance. Mightiest telescope on one hand and most powerful microscope on the other, discovering in the plan of God not one imperfection. Witty writers sometimes depreciate the thunder and say it is the ligntning that strikes, but I am sure God thinks well ot' the thunder, or He would not make so much of it, and all up and down the Bible He uses the thunder to give emphasis. It was the thunder that shook Sinai when the law was given. It was wnn thunder that the Lord discomfited the Philis tines at Eben-ezer. Job pictures the war horse as having a neck clothed with thunder. St. John in an apocalyptic vision again and again heard the thunder. The thunder, which is now quite well explained by the elec tricians, was the overpowering mystery of the ancients, and, standing among those mysteries, Job exclaimed: "Lo, these are parts of His ways. But how little a por tion is heard of Him? But the thunder of His power who can understand?" So, aiso, all systems of theology try to tell us what is omnipotence—that is, God's capacity to be everywhere at the same time. "Where is God?" said a heathen philosopher to a Christian man. The Christian answered, "Let me ask you where He is not?" The child had it right when, asked how many Gods are there, and he answered, ''One." "How do you know that?" he was asked again. He an swered, "There is only room for one, for He fills earth and heaven." An author says that if a man were set in the highest heavens lie would not be any nearer the essence of God than if he were in the centre of the earth. I believe it. If this divine essence does not reach all places, what use in our prayer, for prayers are being offered to God on the other side of the earth as well as here, and God must be there and here to take supplica tions which are oifcred thousands 01 miles apart. Übiquity! No one has it but God. And what an alarm to wickedness, an everywhere present Lord, and what a re enforcement when we need help! God on the throne and God with the kneeling child saying his evening prayer at his mother's lap. God above you, God be neath you, God on tin: right of you, God on the left of you, Go;i within you. No pantheism, for that teaches that all things are God, but Jehovah possesses all things, as our souls possess our bodies. God at the diameter and circumference of everything, as close to you as the food you put to your lips, as the coat you put upon your back, as the sunlight that stiine.3 111 your face. Appreciation of that, if through Jesus Christ, the atoning Sa viour, we are right wiii\. Clod, ought to give os a serenity, a tranquillity, that nothing could upset. Would it make us gloomy? No, tor God is the God of joy and will augment our happiness. We have all been painfully reminded in our own experiences that we cannot be in two places at the same time, and yet here comes the thought that God can be in all places at the same time. Madler, the as tronomer, went on with his explorations of the heavens until he concluded that the star Alcyone, one of the Pleiades, was the centre of the universe, and it was a fixed world, and all the other worlds revolved around that world, and some think that that world is heaven and God's throne is there and there reside the nations of the blessed. But He is no more there than He is here. Indeed Alcyone has been found to be in motion, and it also is revolving around some great centre. But 110 place has yet been found where God is not present bv sustaining power. Omnipres ence! Who fully appreciates it? Not I; not you. Sometimes we hear Ilim in a whisper; sometimes we hear Ilim in the v«ice of the storm that jars the Adirondacks. But we cannot swim across this ocean. The finite cannot measure the iutinite. We feel as Job did after finding God in the gold mines and the silver mines of Asia, saying, "There is a vein for the silver and a place for the gold where they fine it." The nature of God never changes, and from all eternity that holy passion glowed in the Infinite, and I think lie was throw ing out worlds into space and inhabiting them and more worlds for the application of that love. He may not have told the other worlds what He aid for this world, as He has noc told us what He did for them. 1 think the love of God was dem onstrated in mightier worlds before our little world was iitted up for human resi dence. Will a man owning 50,000 acres of land put all the cultivation 011 a half acre? Will God make a million worlds and put His chief affection on one small planet? Are the other worlds and larger worlds standing vacant, uninhabited, while this little world is crowded with in habitants? No, it takes a universe of worlds to express the love of God. And there are other ransoms and other rescues and other redemptions, as there may be other millenniums and other resurrection mornings anil judgment days than those of our world. But in the space of six feet by five was comprised the mightiest evidence of God's love that any world ever saw or ever will see. Compressed on two planks joined together as a cross, there was enough agony there concen trated, if distributed, to put whole na tions into torture. That God allowed the assassination of His own Son for the res cue of our world is all the evidence needed that He loved the world. Go ahead, O church of God! Go ahead, 0 world, and tell as well as you can what the love of God is, but know beforehand that Paul was right when he said, "It passeth knowledge." Let other poets take up the story of God's love where William Cowper and Isaac Wafts and Charles Wesley and Horatius Bonar left it, and let other painters improve upon the ' Sis tine Madonna" and the "Adoration of the Magi" and the "Crucifixion" as Raphael and Titian and Claude and Correggio pre sented them. Let the German pulpit or ator take up the theme of God's love where Frederick Tholuck left it, let Ital ian pulpit take it up where G ivazzi left it, let French pulpit orator take up thd theme where Bourdeloue left it, let the Swiss pulpit orator take up the theme where Merle d'Aubignc left it, let the English pulpit take it up where George Whitefield left it. let the Scotch pulpit take it tin where Dr. Candlish left it, let the Welsh pulpit take it up where Christ mas Evans left it, and let the American pulpit take it up where Archibald Alex ander and Dr. Kirk and Matthew Simp son left it. But the world will never ar>- preciatc fully the love of God until they hear from His own lips the outburst «l Hia infinite and everlasting affection.