4 THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 



coldest areas protected by one three-gallon oil pot and one twelve-pound 

 basket of coal to each tree, and fuel in storage sufficient to fill every pot 

 and basket about three times. We felt reasonably sure that we could 

 handle any temperature that might visit us. How little we suspected 

 that California — sunny California — could ever be so cold! Between 

 November 1, 1912, and March 27, 1913, we put the torches to the oil 

 pots on twenty-nine different nights — one night out of every five. It is 

 said that every man's success may be measured by the extra work he 

 does. Just as surely was our sviccess due to the extra ten thousand 

 three-gallon oil pots, for wherever they were installed only the exposed 

 margins of the orchards gave evidence that the frost had been there. 

 On January 6, 1913, before the evening twilight had faded from the 

 west, our oil pots had been burning half an hour. We began firing at 

 30 degrees. The temperature was falling at the rate of one degree 

 every seven minutes. How low it might have gone we shall never know, 

 though one thermometer just a few rods above the firing line on the 

 warmer ground registered 19 degrees for several hours. Neighbors 

 reported varying temperatures as low as 12 degrees. First one half of 

 the pots were lighted, followed by half of the coal. This held the 

 mercury nearly 31 and 32 degrees. At 9.40 p. m. the second half of the 

 oil pots were fired and a little later the first half extinguished, while 

 there was still a little oil in them. We did not want to find ourselves 

 with half of the pots altogether empty in case of a still more severe 

 drop in the temperature. At the same time eight tank wagons with 

 eight men to each wagon stood ready, and as fast as the pots were 

 extinguished, the men carried oil in from the ends of the rows refilling 

 every pot. This refilling continued all night. Twelve thousand gallons 

 of oil was thus distributed. Other teams hauled out forty tons of coal 

 which men with boxes carried down the rows replenishing thousands 

 of the baskets while they burned. In the meantime a special train 

 from Los Angeles was bringing half a dozen cars of oil to fill the reser- 

 voirs that were now nearly empty. When at four o'clock in the morn- 

 ing the last stray basket and every pot had to be lighted and kept 

 burning full blast till sunrise, we realized again that it was the extra 

 twelve thousand gallons of oil and the extra forty tons of coal hauled 

 out and distributed steadily all night long in darkness and dense smoke 

 by men who had worked all of the day before — it was this extra fuel 

 and this extra labor so willingly given, as well as the extra ten thousand 

 oil pots and the special trainload of oil, that saved full two hundred 

 carloads of lemons on two hundred acres of orchard. 



Costs of Firing. 



To the manager of the Limoneira Company, Mr. C. C. Teague, is due 

 the entire credit for the foresight and timely conviction that led to the 

 installation of the generous equipment and abundant store of fuel that 

 made possible this hard earned victory. Did it pay? Was it worth 

 while? The total equipment used in the entire winter's campaign, 

 including coal baskets and basket stands, oil pots, oil storage reser- 

 voirs, tank wagons, torches, and all accessories, cost, when new, only 

 $13,800.00 ; the 150,000 gallons of oil always in storage cost $4,500.00, 

 and 300 tons of coal, $3,600.00, making a total of $21,900.00. This 



