96 HORTICULTURE, FORESTRY, FLORICULTURE 



little time at each pot that it is hardly necessary to come to a full 

 stop. One gallon of liquid is sufficient to light 800 smudge pots. 



An orchardist does not hesitate to spend $400 for apparatus and 

 material with which to spray his orchard in order to successfully 

 fight insect pests and fungous disease. The necessary apparatus for 

 successful frost fighting is neither complicated nor costly and should 

 be kept on hand, provided the grower's orchard is in the frost belt. 



The Weather Bureau publishes a series of maximum and mini- 

 mum temperatures for the various sections of the United States; it 

 also publishes the dates of probable killing frosts, for both spring and 

 fall, for the frost-belt districts, and in addition to this its forecasters 

 are able to send out a warning of probable frost injury about ten to 

 sixteen hours before frost is likely to occur. 



While orchard heating is comparatively new and the system 

 needs to be perfected in some of its minor details, many thousands of 

 dollars can be saved annually by properly protecting the orchards 

 from frost injury by the use of artificial heat. (Y. B. 1909.) 



Winter Injury to Twigs and Trunks. This is commonly due 

 to the use of varieties too tender for the locality. The most success- 

 ful remedy is to secure hardier sorts. When this is not possible, or 

 the varieties grown may be particularly profitable, the trunk is pro- 

 tected in winter. In northern Minnesota the best authorities recom- 

 mend that the trunks of young apple trees be surrounded with a box 

 6 inches square reaching to the branches and filled with soil to fur- 

 nish protection against winter injury. They have discovered that 

 even if the smaller branches are seriously injured by the winter, they 

 stand a good chance of recovering, provided the trunk is uninjured. 

 This protection also prevents sunscald, injuries from mice and from 

 cultivation. In Florida some orange growers protect their tree 

 trunks by piling the soil about them as far up as the branches. 



Injury to the Buds of Fruit Trees. This is a common source of 

 loss to growers of cherries and peaches at the North. The fruit buds 

 of these trees are liable to start slightly in warm winter days, and to 

 be killed by the following low temperature, although the leaf buds 

 may not be injured. Various remedies have been prescribed for this, 

 among the most successful where the trees are small, bending them 

 over in autumn and covering with cornstalks. The tops sometimes 

 are tied together and covered with cornstalks or matting. Experi- 

 ments have also been made in covering the trees with various paint 

 compounds for the purpose of giving an extra covering to the buds, 

 but without good results. One of the most ingenious ways of fur- 

 nishing protection to peach buds has been tried by Professor Whit- 

 ten, of the Missouri Experiment Station, who applied the principle 

 that dark colors absorb more heat than light ones. He discovered 

 that light-colored peach twigs were slower starting into growth than 

 those that are dark, and conceived the idea of spraying peach trees 

 with lime wash. He claims to have been very successful in this 

 practice. (U. S. E. S. B. 178.) 



Laying Down Peach Trees for Protection of Buds. The area 

 of successful culture of the peach can be greatly extended if a practi- 



