34 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



we cannot go to the expense and trouble of procuring pots and storing 

 oil and caring for our orchards in this way. I have known cases where 

 they have used these smudgers night after night, and then thinking all 

 danger was past from the frost, there would come a sudden change in the 

 weather, and before they realized it there would be a cold spell that 

 would destroy the crop. I am in doubt as to the economy of the spray. 

 There is no question but what it is effectual to a certain degree at least, 

 but will the expense and trouble necessary to get it, pay for what you 

 get out of it? I think it would be better to plant our orchards near 

 some large body of water and in proper location where the air currents 

 will be all right, and then you will have no trouble. If one is carry- 

 ing on market gardening, growing small fruits then I think the water 

 spray could be used to good advantage and profitably. 



.Mr. Waters — After a heavy rain we never have a frost, even though 

 we have it quite cold, and it is from that principle that I advise spray- 

 ing vines — not so much the spraying of the vines themselves, but the 

 wetting down of the ground thoroughly. I do not think that just the 

 mere wetting down of the vines will do very much good, but if the 

 ground could be wet down thoroughly, it would do the work, and a 

 farmer can afford to do this. If water is put on plentifully I am very 

 sure that the frost will be prevented. You ask what effect the water 

 has on the ground; the earth is warm and if we saturate the soil with 

 water it creates a warmth that saves from the frost. 



A Member — Has anyone had experience with an orchard planted be- 

 side a lake of say, forty acres, and from fifty to one hundred and fifty 

 feet deep? We have an orchard on the east side of a small lake, and 

 the land is quite flat — Has anyone had any experience as to whether a 

 small body of water will warrant planting an orchard on that land? 



A Member — In regard to fresh cultivation — they asked this question 

 of Professor Vandeman, one of the Professors of Agriculture in Ver- 

 mont, and they answered favorably to fresh cultivation. My ther- 

 mometer was showing a freezing point in the crotches of the trees and 

 the ground was crackling under my feet; I was keeping up fires. The 

 ground was just freshly cultivated, and I had nothing injured. 



Mr. Monroe — In regard to the influence of Lake Michigan, I would 

 like to make a statement, particularly because it is a matter of a good 

 deal of observation — and if anybody knows of an exception I will be 

 glad to hear of it — and that is this, I do not think we ever lost a tree 

 by cold weather in the winter when the wind was across Lake Michi- 

 gan. I do recall a small body of water beside which a vineyard was 

 planted, Lake Corey, just west of Chicago, I remember there was a 

 large vineyard on the north side of it, and as I passed it a good many 

 times I noticed that the frost would kill below a certain line right 

 along, while above it, about half way up from the lake level to the 

 higher part, the vine would be all right. Now, I think if it had been 

 planted on the west instead of on the north side of the lake, the water 

 would have had more influence. 



Question — There was open water in Lake Michigan the times yon 

 speak of, was there not? 



Mr. Monroe — Perhaps, but in every case I have investigated where 

 some have said that there was frost loss, such as poor cultivation, 



