PROCEEDINGS OF TWENTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 115 



A large number of small fires, advantageously placed, will raise the 

 temperature of the air several degrees. The Riverside Horticultural 

 Club, testing the various methods which were in use in California, came 

 to the conclusion that wire baskets suspended a few feet above the 

 ground, and holding several pounds of coal or charcoal, made an efiicient 

 protector. This method was described by Mr. Edward Copley, of River- 

 side, Cal., in several articles published in the Riverside Press of April, 

 1896. The cost of the wire basket is about ten cents, and if forty baskets 

 be used to the acre, the cost of fuel will hardly exceed $2.50. To this 

 must be added the cost of labor during the night and succeeding day in 

 refilling the baskets. This method meets with most favor in Southern 

 California. The temperature can be raised certainly 3° or 4° with from 

 twenty to forty of these baskets to the acre. It has been suggested that 

 a number of small oil lamps be used with success for this purpose. Oil 

 pots have been used and make a hotter fire, but the deposit of lampblack 

 upon the fruit is objectionable. Some cheap modification of the ordinary 

 plumber's furnace might possibly be devised, which, by means of a mod- 

 erate blast, would produce a high temperature. 



Damp straw, old wood, prunings, manure, etc., when burned briskly, 

 furnish an effective smoke, and if the material while burning is doused 

 with water, the result is a dense steamy smoke, which, while trying on 

 human lungs, serves as a screen to prevent loss of heat by radiation and 

 as a barrier between the chilled fruit and a sudden application of heat 

 at the time of sunrise. Wet smudging has been tried in many ways, 

 with varying results. There are many reports of failure, and, on the 

 other hand some definite results showing the good accomplished by this 

 method. Here, as in all other methods of protection, much will depend 

 upon a careful study of the local conditions. Many a farmer smudges 

 so that some neighbor gets the benefit of his work while his own fruit 

 remains unprotected. All motion of the air should be noted carefully, 

 and this is sometimes difficult where the smoke is very dense. In some 

 orchards sacks of old straw soaked with oil are so distributed as to be 

 available for quick lighting. Portable smudges have also been devised. 



Of all methods proposed for the protection of fruit, excepting wire 

 baskets, irrigation has the largest amount of evidence in its favor. It 

 has been tried in many different places with different crops, and has 

 generally given satisfaction. Where water is not very plentiful, and 

 this is the case strangely enough in some fruit sections, the method 

 may not always be practicable, but with this exception there are many 

 decided advantages in the generous use of water. Injury from frost 

 depends almost as much upon the condition of the tree as upon the 

 severity of the weather. Critical periods in the life of the tree can be 

 controlled to some degree by the use of water. 



Some fruit-growers hold that heat is the one thing that is desired at 



