20 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



it a black frost. There isn't moisture euougli in tlie air to deposit any- 

 thing. When it thaws out, everything wilts. The more moisture in the 

 air, the safer you are; there is no question about that; I think that is the 

 general opinion of people who have watched it. How many of you have 

 gone out in the morning, where you have been plowing, and where you 

 turned the furrow over have found it frozen to a crust, yet you could 

 not detect a crust where the next furrow was to run. That would rather 

 dispel that theory, because I think, as a matter of fact, that it is a theory. 

 I never saw freshly plowed land but it was more liable to freezing than 

 other. 



Mr. Kork: There is one other thought in this. In the moisture escap- 

 ing, there is heat given off. 



Mr. Welch: Whenever we have had a spring that was quite moist, I 

 have noticed that we never had our strawberries hurt by frosts. Last 

 year, when the warm weather came on, I thought we were past the frost 

 point, and I plowed a portion of my orchard Just before that frost, and 

 my neighbors on each side had not plowed theirs yet; and right in the 

 orchard I have one piece of ground that was sown to crimson clover, 

 which I skipped. That part of the orchard was completely loaded with 

 peaches; and one orchard, on the one side, did not have a quarter of a 

 crop, and the other, on the other side, had about half a crop. One of my 

 neighbors went home and cultivated his strawberry patch. There was 

 only a fence between his patch and the strawberries of his neighbor, but 

 the neighbor had lots of strawberries and the man first mentioned did not 

 have enough for home use. I am pretty well satisfied that it is best not to 

 disturb the ground until after the danger of frost is over. 



Mr. Monroe: Last year, at South Eaven, there were at least a dozen 

 orchards that were cultivated, in different neighborhoods ; and in nearly 

 every case, those who cultivated lost by frost. In one case a man culti- 

 vated half his orchard and half remained uncultivated, and on that that 

 was uncultivated he saved his crop. 



Mr. Morrill: I have seen similar things so often that I supposed it 

 was a fixed rule. 



Q. Is it well to wait to cultivate small fruits until the danger of frost 

 is over? 



Mr. Morrill: I am careful about cultivating them when I think there 

 is danger of a change in weather. I am speaking now of small fruits, 

 such as blackberries and raspberries. But if we have had a cold period, 

 two or three frosty nights, after we have had the third I am always free 

 to go ahead, because we know it is going to be warm for three or four 

 days. I have been very successful in avoiding these little dangers for a 

 number of years, since I have practiced a few such things as that. But 

 the strawberry I let entirely alo'ne. This discussion is very interesting 

 to me, and to a good many people, but it leads us into the study of several 

 things of which the successful fruit man understands the importance. 

 Condensation, evaporation, radiation— all these things he must under- 

 stand to work intelligently in fruitgrowing, and the day has come when, 

 to make very much of a success, we must have a more or less clear idea 

 of all these. 



