FROST PROTECTION IN LEMON ORCHARDS. 



23 



1913, a large percentage of merchantable fruits was saved and har- 

 vested during the various pickings throughout the year. The studies 

 also show that in orchards which were not heated the number of 

 merchantable fruits was relatively small; that a small proportion of 

 the lemons picked during the first six months was frozen or unmer- 

 chantable, and that the trees did not return to normal production for 

 about a year. From the data herewith presented it would appear 

 that in sections where low temperatures are liable to be experienced 

 lemon growers should 



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see that their groves 

 are equipped with 

 some efficient means 

 of orchard heating. 



Table XIX presents 

 a statement of the 

 initial investment for 

 heating equipment per 

 acre and the cost of 

 maintenance and 

 operation for the sea- 

 son of 1912-13. On 

 the particular ranch 

 where these figures 

 apply 186 acres were 

 heated. Some of the 

 heated plats consid- 

 ered in this bulletin 

 were located on this 

 ranch. 



As the price re- 

 ceived by the grower 

 for merchantable lem- 

 ons following a freeze 

 is generally consider- 

 ably higher than that 

 received i n normal 

 years, unless he is able to save his crop by orchard heating he is not 

 in a position to reap the benefit of the higher prices which would be 

 obtained during the season of scarcity of sound fruit, and in addition 

 he faces the possibility of losing the greater percentage of his crop. 

 If seasons of low temperature were experienced only at intervals of 

 10 or 15 years it is possible that growers in especially protected 

 localities might consider that the losing of one year's crop 

 would not be offset by the initial investment for heating equipment 

 and cost of maintenance, which in 1913 was placed in the Corona 



Fig. 12. — Diagram prepared from the figures presented in Table 

 XVIII, showing the percentages of merchantable and frozen 

 fruits produced on the nonheated acre of Lisbon lemon trees, 

 plat 10, as compared with the heated acre, plat 9. during the 

 calendar 3'ear 1913. 



