THE MONTHLY BULLETIN. 5 



averaged $109.50 per acre for the investment. The actual expense 

 items were as follows : 



j^aljor $10,574 75 



Oil consumed, 180,000 gallons at 3 cents • 5,400 00 



Coal burned, 150 tons at $12.00 1,800 00 



Miscellaneous ^;^8 _0 



Six per cent interest on plant o -I^n nn 



Twenty per cent deterioration '^'It , ^ 



Six per cent interest on coal and oil in storage 4Sb 00 



Total $22,186 20 



Estimating as above that two hundred cars of lemons were saved on 

 the two hundred acres protected, the average cost per car was $110.93, 

 or the same amount per acre. The ordinary cost of producing a carload 

 of lemons is more than $500. We have met all expenses and paid fair 

 interest in dividends to stockholders out of this year's earnings. 



Losses in Unprotected Areas. 



Even though we saved much, our loss was still severe. Fifteen 

 hundred twenty-year-old lemon trees on "safe" ground above and 

 immediately adjoining the protected area, lost all of their fruit and 

 foliage and all of the smaller branches; ten thousand trees five years 

 old were frozen to the ground and twenty-five per cent of them later 

 reset; while another ten thousand of the same age lost crop and much of 

 the fruit wood. These areas had never suffered before. Our lesson 

 was severe enough to teach us that frost protection is as much a part of 

 our industry, and as necessary in almost every part of the orchard, as 

 irrigation or any other operation. And like the great nations advocat- 

 ing international peace, we have come to believe that invincible equip- 

 ment guarantees the surest "peace" of mind and most certain security 

 in time of "strained relations." 



Adequate Equipment. 



The man who tries to handle a low temperature with inadequate 

 equipment is like that gentleman Avho came running down to the dock 

 with his ticket in his hand just as the gang plank had been hauled in 

 and the ship already some twenty-five feet away. His anxious friend 

 aboard saw him coming and shouted excitedly, "Jump ! Ikey, jump ! I 

 think you can make it in two jumps ! ' ' "We have been in Ikey 's posi- 

 tion too often and know well enough just how he felt. 



And now a word as to our present equipment — an equipment that 

 we believe sufficient to handle a temperature as low as 12 degrees, pos- 

 sibly lower. Instead of having only two hundred acres fully equipped 

 the area is increased to five hundred acres. The coal basket and 

 the oil pot of the lard-pail type and the open top have been hauled 

 from the orchard and discarded. Each tree is protected instead by a 

 new pot holding seven gallons of oil. It is a pot that can be regulated 

 so as to Inirn at any desired rate from one pint to one gallon per hour. 

 It will burn any grade of petroleum from asphaltum to engine distillate 

 or kerosene— and burn it to the bottom of the pot. It is not a smoke- 

 less pot. but promises to make less soot than any of the types used last 

 year. It can be set with draughts all adjusted so that when firing is 

 necessary the operator with one hand removes the hood cover and with 

 the other instantly touches it off with his torch. We believe that with 

 proper care it will last from six to ten years. 



