14 FRUIT RAXCHING. 



Spring frosts do occur; but they do not in any way 

 seriously affect the fruit trees. " During all the time 

 1 have grown fruit beside Lake Kootenay," wrote one 

 of my correspondents, " I can truthfully say I have 

 never lost a cent from this cause." This appears lo 

 be perfectly correct. The explanation p/obably is 

 that, owing to the geographical situation, the trees are 

 somewhat late in blossoming, and do not reach the 

 stage of development at which they become especially 

 susceptible to injury from spring frosts until a time 

 when the frosts are ceasing. Another contributory 

 factor may, no doubt, be discerned in the proximity of 

 the lake, the vapour from which, rising as the air 

 warms in a morning, spreads itself like a protecting 

 veil over the vegetation, including the orchards, which 

 cling to the foot and slopes of the mountains. The 

 early morning sun, again, owing to the narrowness of 

 the lake and the altitude of the encircling mountains, 

 does not shoot his beams directly upon the cultivated 

 lower slopes, but strikes first the summits of the 

 mountains, and then slowly creeps down from the top 

 to the bottom, warming the air before him as he 

 descends, so that when he does at last reach the 

 orchards below, the frost has already been thawed out 

 of them. 



Nor, probably, is the diurnal range of the 

 temperature without its effect in providing a certain 

 measure of protection against the "scalding or 

 blighting " influences of the early morning rays. For, 

 though the day may be bright and sunny, and even 

 actually hot, as early as April, or, indeed, earlier, the 

 nights are always, without exception, cool. This wide 

 difference between day and night temperatures, 



