Frost Injuries and Protection, Secondary Bloom 337 



year while his neighbor has none may save himself no little 

 embarrassment, should fortune turn another season, by 

 not assuming a boastful altitude. And, furthermore, he 

 must not be too sure that he can attribute success in saving 

 a fruit-crop to some particular step in the cultural manage- 

 ment of the orchard. While the only visible difference in 

 the management of two orchards is that one grower waters 

 in the fall and the other does not, a failure of one orchard 

 does not necessarily mean that the system of watering is at 

 fault. 



Retarding the Blooming Period 



Various plans of retarding the blooming period have 

 been tried, but at most they only delay blooming a few 

 days, while the fruit-crop may be in danger for as many 

 weeks. Mulching the ground about the trees in late winter 

 to retain the frost has had little if any effect as far as re- 

 tarding the blooming of the tree is concerned. Experi- 

 ments in whitewashing the trees from top to bottom and 

 maintaining this coating throughout the winter and early 

 spring have given varied results, but in no case has the 

 practice retarded the blooming season enough to give 

 promise of any great benefits. Some growers have 

 omitted the late fall watering and have withheld water 

 in the spring until after the blooming period, in fact until 

 the trees actually suffered, yet in the past two seasons 

 these orchards have suffered as much as those watered in 

 the fall. 



The Use of Water in fighting Frost 



Water has been used in various ways in fighting frost, 

 but in most cases it has either proved impracticable or 



