274 NEBKASKA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



lighting the pots by means of a gasoline torch the lids may 

 be knocked olf and the Avicks tired as fast as a man can walk. 



A very considerable item of expense in using the oil heaters 

 is in providing storage for the oil at convenient points. This 

 usually is done by constructing cisterns in the orchard, or, 

 better still, by providing tanks whicli are tilled by force but 

 emptied by gravity. 



On account of the first expense of installing facilities for 

 handling large quantities of oil, some prefer to use coal as a 

 fuel for orchard heating. The price of coal will vary consid- 

 erably in different communities. Where it costs 14 cents per 

 bushel or $3.50 per ton, the expense is about equal to three 

 gallons of oil at five cents per gallon. Thus one bushel of 

 coal will fill a burner four times and each tilling will last for 

 three hours. Three gallons of oil will till a small burner three 

 times and each tilling will last four hours. 



The objection to coal is that it is slow work tilling the heat- 

 ers and when first lighted some time elapses before much heat 

 is generated. The oil burns fiercely within a minute after 

 lighting. It is also objected that much coal is lost by being 

 scattered upon the ground about the heaters and in continu- 

 ing to burn after frost danger is past, while the oil can be ex- 

 tinguished at any time by merely putting tlie lids on the pots, 

 thus saving the remainder of the fuel. 



WHEN TO HEAT AITLE ORCHARDS. 



The discussion so far regarding the danger point of cold 

 has been for peaches only. For apples the conditions would 

 be different u]) to the time the buds began to swell. During 

 the dormant state in the winter time, apple buds are capable 

 of withstanding any temperature which Avill not kill the trees 

 themselves. Unlike the peach, apple buds when dormant do 

 not contain all of the parts of the flower fully formed and 

 ready to open up with the appearance of the first few M'urm 

 days. When the dormant app](^ l)nds do begin to grow in the 

 spring they first push out a tuft of leaves, which are followed 



