THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 3 



Removing Soot from Fruit. 



As I stated before, tlie fruit everywhere was badly sooted, but, realiz- 

 ing as we did that without the oil pots our carloads of sooted lemons 

 would have been carloads of frozen lemons, we set ourselves light- 

 heartedly to the task of washing them clean, even though we did not 

 know how to do it. After numerous experiments with soaps, solvents, 

 etc., we adopted the method developed by the late Mr. A. F. Call, and 

 others of Corona. This was with hot water at a temperature of 110 

 degrees and Gold Dust in the ordinary lemon washing machine, starting 

 in the morning with from three to five pounds of the Gold Dust to each 

 one hundred gallons of water, adding an additional ten per cent of 

 Gold Dust hourly during the day. But as a most important prelimi- 

 nary to this we found that an instantaneous bath in cheap kerosene just 

 before dumping the lemons into the washer seemed to dissolve and 

 absorb the soot in such a way that the soap wash was far more effective. 

 This combination gave excellent results. 



Comparative Costs of Coal and Oil as Fuels. 



In the mean time a careful comparison of the cost of oil protection 

 with that of coal protection, including equipment, interest, deteriora- 

 tion, fuel consumed, and labor required, gave oil the advantage. The 

 Cfiuipment and store of fuel required about the same initial investment, 

 but in handling a cold night it developed that seven cents' worth of fuel 

 in the oil pot gave twice the efficiency obtained from nine cents' worth 

 of coal. This was readily explained by the fact that even under 

 superior conditions of combustion a pound of coal can not be made to 

 give off n^ore than about half as many heat units as the same amount 

 of oil. A snmller labor cost was also an extra item in favor of oil. 



With the factor of efficiency and cost so plainly and unmistakably in 

 favor of oil, it is easy to understand why from the day when the sooted 

 lemons first came from the washer clean and uninjured, we have firmly 

 believed the oil pot to be the most effective, the simplest, cheapest, and 

 therefore the most practical equipment for frost prevention. 



Firing: in the Winter of 1912-1913. 



When congratulating ourselves on the successful results of our "fir- 

 ing" during the winter of 1911-12. We could not forget the strain and 

 anxiety of those twelve consecutive nights when we fired from one 

 hundred to t\<'0 hundred acres each night. Would the oil and coal last 

 till morning? Would the temperature fall so low that the equipment 

 could not save the crop? Could we get enough fuel from outside 

 sources if the siege continued many days more? It was evident that 

 wiiere a quarter of a million dollars' worth of fruit was at stake, the 

 margin of safety was still too small. Before another winter ten thou- 

 sand more oil pots were in-stalled on the cold areas, each pot holding 

 three gallons, so constructed that the combustion was much improved 

 and the size of flame subject to some regulation. Higher areas, never 

 known to freeze were at least partially equipped against the possibility 

 of still severer frosts. 



Thus it happened that when the coldest winter California citrus 

 orchardists have ever known came upon us one year ago it found our 



