FROST PROTECTION. 357 



keep the juice in the fruit from congealing and therefore 

 without injury until the water in the pan began freezing 

 over. Developments proved that we were right, as I shall 

 attempt to demonstrate to you. Our experience on both 

 our coldest nights, the llth and 12th, was almost identi- 

 cal, and I have selected the 12th, which was the colder, 

 and the following is the record of our thermometers on 

 that night: 



7 p. m 32 degrees. 



8 p. m 28 degrees. 



9 p. m. . 26 degrees. 



10 p. m 24 degrees. 



11 p. m 22 degrees. 



11:30 p. m 21 degrees. 



"At this time the water in the pans began freezing 

 over and we began lighting our baskets. Our men were 

 divided into squads, and each squad being in charge of a 

 competent man. Our reason for this was that it would 

 not be economical to have a large crew of men working 

 together, as they would be obliged to do a great deal of 

 unnecessary walking. In other words, a crew of forty 

 men lighting on forty rows would oblige the man on the 

 first row to walk across the end of forty rows to reach the 

 forty-first, or his next row. On the night in question 

 we had forty men lighting, and it took from one and a 

 half to two hours to light 2500, or one-half the baskets. 

 At 12 o'clock, midnight, before the baskets were well 

 under way, and giving off a good heat, the thermometer 

 registered 20 degrees; at 1:00 o'clock 22 degrees; at 1:30 

 22 degrees. (At this time we began lighting the other 



