Preventing Injury from Frost by Smudging. 71 



brilliant. I set down my lantern and walked out to take a look at the 

 horizon in the west. I could see no stars in the west lower than about 

 10 degrees above the horizon and returned to the thermometer and 

 found it slowly rising. I did not call the men, but watched the ther- 

 mometers, and they continued to rise until 4:30 a. m. ; the lower ther- 

 mometer read 35 and the upper one 36 degrees. At this hour all stars 

 were obstrueted from view to about 45 degrees above the horizon, while 

 overhead, and in the east, they continued bright. This fog coming from 

 the west, and gradually rising stopped heat radiation, hence I had no 

 occasion for smudging that night. From April lOth until the morning 

 of May Ist I was up at 2 a. m. fifteen times, watching weather con- 

 ditions to determine whether I should smudge. On the morning of 

 April 16th at 2 a. m. the lower thermometer read 35 degrees and the 

 upper one 36, and was slowly falling. I noted the conditions in the 

 west, and every star was shinging brightly down to the horizon. The 

 mercury by 4 a. m. was down to 33 degrees, and no change indicated 

 in the west. I called the men and we started our fires at once. It 

 continued clear until the sun came up. At sunrise the thermometer 

 registered 28 degrees. Not a peach was injured by this cold, although 

 it was four degrees below 32 when ice begins to form. On April 22nd 

 the same conditions as to frost occurred, and we had to build our fires 

 again, and we saved our peach crop from a killing frost. On the night 

 of April 30th, there was every indication of a killing frost. At 2 a. m. 

 I was up, and noted the reading of the two thermometers. The degrees 

 of cold read 33 and 34 and no indication of a fog in the Western 

 horizon. I at once called the men, and we started our fires. The 

 mercury continued to fall until sunrise, when the thermometers read 

 27 at the lower level and 28 at the upper. We kept the fires going 

 vigorously until the temperature rose just after sunrise to above 32. 

 We examined the young peaches on the trees after the sun came out, and 

 not a peach we could find had been injured within the zone of smoke. 

 Off from the main orchard we had a few young trees we did not smudge 

 that were bearing a number of peaches; all these were killed. Not a 

 peach there but that turned black and feil off. 



The strongest evidence that smudging our peach orchard that year 

 (1887) saved our peach crop was that we were the only peach-growers 

 in Josephine County that marketed peaches. All the peaches in the 

 county except ours, were killed on the nights of April 16th, 22nd and 

 30th. We had to thin our crop, while our neighbors had no peaches to 

 thin. Of the fifteen nights I was up at 2 a. m., at 9 p. m. it was cold, 

 still and clear, and no doubt had the dew-point been taken with the 

 wet and dry-bulb thermometers, frost warnings would have been given 

 and the growers in case there was no change during the night could 

 start their smudges. However, the point I desire to impress on the 

 minds of the fruit-growers that are prepared to smudge is that in 

 many cases where the warnings are sent out from a central Station 

 to expect frost towards morning a change may occur, and the necessity 

 for smudging not exist. It is unsafe not to heed the warnings sent our 

 from a central warning Station, where the Operator is equipped with 

 wet and dry-bulb thermometers, but it is also poor economy for the fruit- 

 grower not to be out of bed at 2 a. m. and note if a change is occurring 

 or not. I say it is poor economy for the grower to depend altogether 

 on these warnings without being up, for should a change occur and he 

 was burning oil before the cold had been severe enough to damage his 

 fruit, it would be an unnecessary expense. Of the fifteen nights in 1887 

 I was up to note weather conditions, only three did I have to smudge, 

 although twelve of the nights at sunset indicated severe and damaging 

 frost, had not the changes occurred towards morning. 



