No. 7. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 627 



''We lost several crops of fruit by frost and we either 

 had to save the fruit or get out of business. In one year, 

 while experimenting- with means to prevent frost losses, 

 we saved G,000 bushels of peaches by burning brush in the 

 orchard, and another year we saved a part of the apple 

 orchard by the same means. The success we had with 

 burning brush led us to equip a portion of our orchard 

 containing 900 bearing apple trees with 1,000 of the small 

 size Troutraan orchard heaters. We also constructed a 

 large storage tank that would hold several tank-car loads 

 of oil and obtained an outfit of wagons, buckets, light- 

 ers, etc. The concrete storage tank is constructed of rein- 

 forced concrete and holds 16,000 gallons. The tank is all 

 below ground and over the top is arched steel bedded in 

 cement. An 8-inch man-hole is left in the top so that it 

 may be entered at any time when necessary. The bottom of 

 the tank slopes to one corner where it opens into a two- 

 inch pipe that leads down hill to a point where easy loading 

 in the wagons can be affected. The unloading of the tank 

 car is done by gravity and by taking advantage of the slope 

 of the land; the handling of the oil is also done by gravity 

 when reloading the wagons. The oil is thus handled easily 

 and quickly. 



''The orchard pots or heaters must be managed so as 

 to light quickly. We did not try to light the pots till the 

 temperature dropped below thirty degrees. We did this to 

 economize on oil. However, when the temperature reaches 

 thirty-two degrees in any orchard, the oil pots should be 

 lighted. And, if a period of 24 or 3G hours has elapsed 

 after the trees have come into bloom the fertilization will 

 probably be completed. 



Records of Teinperature. "The first night of the frost 

 was April 10th. On this night the temperature was at 34 

 at 9 P. M. At midnight it had dropped to 27; at 3 A. M. 

 it had reached 23 degrees and at 4 A. M. it reached the 

 minimum close to 22 degrees. Inside of the orchard where 

 the fires were burning, the temperature at this hour was 

 33 degrees in some places and 32 degrees in others. Out- 

 side of the orchards the temperature did not reach 32 de- 

 grees until noon the next day. On this night the wind was 

 blowing so hard that it was difficult to pour the oil from 

 the buckets into the pots. It must be poured into burning 

 pots slowly or it will put out the fire. And to make the 

 work doubly difficult on this night it was snowing hard 

 and the melting snow in the pots caused the oil to sputter 

 and poy> from the pots, wasting a great dealt of it. 



"On Thursday night, April 21st, we had the most con- 

 vincing test of the value of smudging with oil heaters. It 

 was a clear night and still, and the temperature in the even- 

 ing dropped to 28 degrees, reaching a minimum of 25, 

 where it remained until 9 A. M. the next day. We lighted 

 one-half the pots and watched results. A dense black smoke 

 formed over the orchard and surrounding fields. The lem- 



