PROCEEDINGS OF THIRTY-SIXTH FRUIT-GROWERS' CONVENTION. 139 



get the cream and feed the hogs skim-milk. ' ' Let us turn the attention 

 of the stranger to other things than fruit. It is conceded by the world, 

 we have established it. that there is no equal area on the surface of the 

 globe that can produce in perfection as many varieties of the fruit tree 

 and vine as can California. TVe have talked that universally, now let us 

 send that product to the world in such condition that it will learn to 

 depend upon us entirely for its supply of that form of food, and mean- 

 time devote our attention to the other things that are profitable in filling 

 the gap of five millions a year in dairy products and other millions in 

 pork products and that will yield a profit. Let us expand in that form 

 and then it is very easy, when our fruit market has reached the limit of 

 our supply, to begin to expand the supply. 



• Now, this is a very discursive discussion. I envy a man who can write 

 a paper and stand up and read it. I can't and never could, and the 

 result is I never became a writer and never became a speaker. But bear 

 in mind what I have said to you about the schools. I remember the joy 

 that came into my heart when my only boy, a college boy with an oppor- 

 tunity to train for a profession, was visiting my ranches and tramping 

 over my land and seeing seed time and harvest, had born in his heart 

 an irrepressible ambition to become a land man and a live stock man. 

 and when he left college at the close of his training in elementary law 

 and took up land and live stock I was the happiest father in California. 

 [Applause.] And so, let me tell you. Take this home with you and 

 don't forget it, that every father and mother in California, both in city 

 and country who finds the mind and the taste of the boy turned toward 

 the country and toward land and toward the rural occupation should 

 be as happy as I, because Washington told the truth when he said agri- 

 culture is the most useful, the most noble, and the most healthful occu- 

 pation of man. (Applause.) 



PRESIDENT JEFFREY. Mr. McAdie, of the Weather Bureau, is 

 here and he will speak, and you will be pleased to hear him. His subject 

 is 1 1 Protection from Injury by Frost." (Applause.) 



PROTECTION FROM INJURY BY FROST. 



By Prof. A. G. McAdie of San Francisco. 



In our attempts to prevent damage by frost in California the first 

 question to be answered is, AYhat is needed? A cheap (the meaning of 

 this word to be given later), easily handled, effective means of pre- 

 venting rapid cooling during the night and early morning hours. 

 Also, we must prevent excessive drying of the plant tissue previous to 

 the fall in temperature and excessive warming of the dried, chilled 

 plant after the frost. Briefly, we must shield fruit and leaf from 

 abnormal strains, caused by rapid changes in temperature and humid- 

 ity. In nearly all the papers heretofore written on "Protection from 

 Frost," attention has been given to temperature changes, but very 

 little has been said about the condition which so frequently precedes 

 frost; namely, the drying. In California our frost periods are nearlv 

 always preceded by a day or two of boisterous north winds, quieting 

 down at nightfall. These winds, we have good reason for believing, 

 rob vegetation of much of the natural moisture and probably leave 



