Frost Injuries and Protection, Secondary Bloom 335 



on a crop valued at an equal figure per acre; and without 

 such insurance high prices for orchard land cannot prevail. 

 It is true that serious injury by frost may not occur in 

 many years, but it behooves the grower to be prepared. 



Many devices and methods have been suggested and 

 tried by the orchardist in an attempt to protect fruit from 

 damaging late spring frosts. It is the purpose here to set 

 forth the merits of the various systems, giving opinions 

 based on previous publications, personal observations, and 

 the experience of careful and observing growers. 



Natural Protection 



When the extent of the damage done by a recent frost 

 is the subject of discussion, there is no commoner expression 

 than that of surprise at the " spottedness " of the freeze 

 or, in other words, the great variation in amount of dam- 

 age done in different parts of some very limited area. 

 Nothing arouses more contention among the growers than 

 the question of the immunity of their respective localities 

 from damaging frosts. Rivalry akin to malice is based on 

 differences purely imaginary, for the escape of a particular 

 locality can, in many cases, be attributed to conditions 

 that are likely to be reversed another year. We have seen 

 growers stand about the exhibition tables at the county 

 fair and with satisfied pride point out their exhibits to a 

 less fortunate neighbor and tell him how it happened that 

 they had fruit when he had none. They talked knowingly 

 of air-currents, and how the peculiar location of their 

 orchard was such that it could never freeze out. And we 

 have seen the same men one year later forced to listen to a 

 similar exposition by the now more fortunate and equally 



