626 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Ofif. Doc. 



improved by spraying, and you will find this, especially, in parts 

 of the country where they have not had any education along this 

 line. Then, in grading and packing you fall short. There is scarce- 

 ly a box or a barrel on exhibition that would stand the test of the 

 llood l\iver district. Out there they have specialists to do their 

 packing. No luan is allowed to do his own j)acking, so as to de- 

 tract from the uniformity of the fruit. It is quite an art to pack 

 fruit properly and carefully and nicely. Now, if you A\ill go over 

 and look at the boxes there, and then at Lewis Bros, box, vou will 

 see the difference. Some of the boxes are not more than two-thinrds 

 full, and in no way can they come under the head of first-class 

 packing. 



Then there is another thing you will have to have your atten- 

 tion called to here. You spray for moth, and for the San Jose 

 scale, but you do not prepare for frost. If 3'ou realize that the cold 

 air settles at the bottom, you will have your orchards in such posi- 

 tion that the cold air can escape without injuring your blossoms in 

 the early spring. There is no telling what you may have to over- 

 come in this method of damage by frost. I have written out a few 

 notes here, Avhich, if you can spare me a little time, I will read : 



Among the most wonderful achievements in the progress of hor- 

 ticulture in recent years is the discovery of means for the pre- 

 vention of frost injury to fruit trees during and after the blossom- 

 ing period. The danger to fruit trees by frost injury is not so 

 great during winter months, but when the tender blossoms appear 

 there are a few days in spring time when the weather is apt to be 

 capricious. 



It is perhaps safe to say that at least 40 per cent, of our crop of 

 fruit is cut off annually in the spring of the year by frost. In some of 

 the commercial orchard districts this disaster has occurred so fre- 

 quently year after year that thousands of acres of orchard trees 

 have been abandoned and are being cut down to give place to other 

 crops. In this age of invention it is not wise to attempt to set 

 bounds or limits to the ultimate power of man to overcome the 

 forces of nature or to modify and change atmospheric conditions. 

 There is little in the way of man's achievement that seem hopelessly 

 impossible. Alread}' it has been fully demonstrated that the teui- 

 perature of the air can be raised a number of degrees by artificial 

 means. Many devices for orchard heating have been invented and 

 are now on the market. 



From the abundance of testimony already obtained from reliable 

 sources in all parts of the country, it is safe to say the prevention 

 of frost injury to fruit crops has already passed the experimental 

 stage and has become a well-established fact that cannot be con- 

 troverted or lightly passed by. For the past three or four years 

 practical tests have been made in Colorado and other western 

 states, with perfect success. We have reports of many remarkable 

 instances where thousands of dollars have been saved by the use 

 of heaters. A single case in point will perhaps be sufficient. Mr. 

 C. E. Mincer, of Hamburg, in reply to questions put by the Editor 

 of the Missouri Fruit Grower in November, 1910, as to why he 

 prepared for frost fighting, says: 



