FROST PROTECTIOISr IN LEMON ORCHARDS. 
23 
^yaye aio^ cCj^or 
zxrc 
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 
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 
t-he 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 losmg 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 
A—A'Or /f/^/ZZ? 
^ 
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 j^ear 1913. 
