April, 1915 
THE GARDEN MAGAZINE 
163 
for frost-fighting,” said the Lichfield County 
grower, “but by making bonfires during the 
night, I have twice saved my strawberry 
crop from being destroyed by late frosts, 
when my neighbors’ patches on higher 
ground were all ruined. But on both these 
occasions, it evidently was the smoke rather 
more than any increased heat that kept off 
the frost— or so it seemed to me, at least. 
The first time I fired to save my berries, the 
mercury stood at 24 above zero at daybreak 
(5:30 o’clock), and this little valley (we 
were at his farm) was so heavily overhung 
with smoke that my neighbors on the hills 
thought my buildings had burned during the 
night. You know these late frosts nearly 
always occur on nights when the air is nearly 
still. That night was such a one — just a 
faint air-current from the Northwest. 
Enough smoke drifted to leeward beyond 
my berry patch to save a neighbor’s ad- 
joining field of early potatoes — at least, they 
were not frosted while another small field 
further to the right that got no smoke Avas 
so badly frosted as to prove a failure. So 
I say it seems to be the smoke rather 
than the additional heat that keeps the 
frost off. 
“What did I use for fuel? Well, both 
times I have used wood chunks and damp, 
strawy manure, chiefly, with some corn cobs 
and coal oil to get the fires started good. I 
go about it this way: Dump down a small 
pile of the cobs — half a peck, say — pour coal 
oil all over them and then pile lengths of 
A movable standpipe can easily be arranged to shower 
water on tender crops to protect them from frost 
wood slantwise around and over the cobs, 
leaving an opening at the top down to the 
cobs. When time to start the fires I drop a 
lighted match down onto the oil-saturated 
cobs, then fill the opening with small wood, 
or coarse chips. After two or three minutes, 
when the fire has gotten to burning good, I 
bank the pile all around with wet strawy 
manure, and in another minute or two there 
is a great volume of white smoke pouring 
from the crater of the cone-like heap. 
“For my strawberry field (about two 
acres, and in shape one-third longer than 
wide), the last time I fired I had 18 fires on 
the windward side and end — n on the side, 
7 on the end. That time the fires were 
started about midnight, and I kept them 
going until around five o’clock. They 
needed replenishing every half hour at 
longest, to make as much smoke as possible. 
Yes, it kept me busy replenishing them and 
fetching the manure and wood chunks. 
‘Worth the labor? ’ Oh, certainly, but still 
I would not advise this method of frost- 
fighting for a large acreage. But, on a 
small scale and in a sudden emergency, it is 
a practical and effective way, and worth 
resorting to.” 
The experience of the Windham County 
raspberry-and-currant grower and the 
method used in firing are nominally the 
same, except that for smoke-making fuel he 
prefers wet sawdust to manure. But after, 
all, this may really be because there is a little 
sawmill right across the road from his berry 
patch, so this material is both handier and 
more abundant than is strawy manure. In 
all emergency cases the point is to use that 
material which is most available, and which 
will make a great amount of smoke in burn- 
ing. The experience of both these growers 
strongly sustains the argument of many 
commercial orchardists — namely, that in 
firing against frost it is very desirable to 
produce a heavy smudge. On the other 
hand, most Western orchardists, and the 
manufacturers of oil or coal burning 
orchard-heaters assert that the value of the 
smudge is greatly overestimated. Be that 
as it may, wet manure and wet sawdust are 
efficient and most practical to the small 
scale fruit grower who is not outfitted with 
some patented orchard heater, and to such 
grower it is of value to know what mate- 
rials have been found really effective to use 
in open-fire frost-fighting. 
III. EARLY AND LATE FLOWERS SAVED 
BY OVERHEAD WATER 
By W. H. S., Vermont 
TN NORTHERN New England there 
frequently are frosts during the first 
week in June. Corn and beans must be 
planted so as not to appear above the 
ground much before the tenth of the month. 
There is usually a killing frost for one or 
two nights about the middle of September 
and while small “garden truck” which can 
be covered up with rugs or blankets may be 
saved to ripen in the long pleasant season 
which follows later, yet tall plants like corn 
and beans may be ruined. This makes the 
If cold water is sprayed on crops in danger of frost or on ice 
till it is melted off naturally, you can minimize frost injury 
growing season so short between frosts that 
every means which can be devised must be 
used to ward off the frost or to protect the 
plants. I had sometimes seen plants re 
vived from frost by sprinkling with cold 
water and the idea occurred to me that the 
same treatment might prevent them from 
freezing. 
I have watched the thermometer closely 
for years and have found that when it in- 
dicates 48 degrees at bedtime there is danger 
of a frost. I have a standpipe sprinkler 
which will cover. nearly my whole garden 
and when this temperature was reached for 
the first time in the fall I tried the experi- 
ment of letting the water run all night. The 
next morning everything was covered with a 
beautiful lacework of ice, but aside from the 
damage done from the weight of the icicles, 
most plants came out unharmed. Corn 
tassels jeweled like diamond tiaras waved 
again unharmed after the morning air had 
softened the icy coating. Beans, among 
the most sensitive of all plants to frost, re- 
covered and ripened until their golden pods 
were splashed with red. A hollyhock 
budded and blossomed after being encased 
in icy armor. Dahlias did not survive at all 
and cosmos broke down under the heavy 
load of ice. Squash and cucumber vines 
outside the sprinkled zone were black and 
dead. Upon the whole the experiment was 
so successful that I have repeated it for 
several years. 
