268 NEBRASKA STATE HOUTICULTL UAL SOCIETY. 



The oil pots in comiiiou use hold from one to live gallons. 

 A gallou of oil will burn for about four liours. A coal burner 

 holding one-fourth bushel will last about three hours. 



The devices for burning coal are really stoves of the sim- 

 plest design. The}' are often made with an oil basin at the 

 bottom which is tirst lighted and of course burns quickly and 

 rapidly. In this manner heat is generated quickly, and l)y 

 the time the oil is burned out the coal is A\ell ignited. 



The oil pots are of different makes, but all are essentially 

 the same in principle. The pots are made of stovepipe iron 

 and the smaller ones of from one to two gallons capacity are 

 six to ten or twelve inches in diameter, a foot or so deep, and 

 fitted with three legs or rest on a rim. Each kind claims some 

 superior point of merit. For example, one kind that is ex- 

 tensively used has an open tube extending from top to bottom 

 of the inside of the pot much like an old-fashioned cake pan, 

 Avhich is for the purpose of carrying a current of air into the 

 center of the flame. This additional supply of oxygen causes 

 more perfect combustion of the oil and results in greater heat 

 being generated. 



Oil pots holding a gallon of oil cost about |15 per hundred 

 f. o. b. shipping point. By the thousand they would come 

 cheaper. 



EXPERIMENTS IN SMUDGING. 



For many years the Experiment Station at the University 

 of Missouri has been testing devices for protecting fruit trees 

 from late spring frosts. Beginning ten or twelve yeai*s ago 

 smudging was employed on several different octcasious. 

 Smoke was generated by burning tar, barnyard manure, and 

 other refuse. As a rule it was impossible to get the smoke to 

 hang over the orchard for a sufficient length of time to have 

 any appreciable effect in preventing the escape of heat radi- 

 ated from the earth. Fires were built on the windward side 

 of the orchard when there was anv movement of the air, and 

 when it was quiet the fires wer(» started on all sides, as the 



