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T'HJS RURAb NEJW-VORKEK 
ORCHARD HEATING IN CALIFORNIA. 
Two years ago a group of growers 
comprising about 60 acres, undertook to 
fight frost with coal, but made rather a 
dismal failure, if we had measured the 
results by the immunity from damage 
as compared with the noil-protected 
groves. There was undoubtedly some 
advantage, but not enough to pay for 
the trouble and expense. However, a 
few of us saw that there was a cause for 
the failure, and decided to go into the 
work again in the following year, start¬ 
ing in earlier on preliminary work, so 
as to start the real work with more as¬ 
surance of good results than before. 
The work finally simmered down to my 
own individual holdings, and in the end 
to only two acres of that. The present 
season about 300 acres have been pre¬ 
pared to fire principally on the strength 
of my experience last year, and though 
we have not had such severe weather 
this season as last, we had two nights, 
December 31 and January 1, which 
would have done damage if efficient 
fighting had not been done. So much 
for the general facts of the case. Now, 
I will give you details from which you 
can see the cause of our failure and the 
reason for our success. 
The real cause of the failure with the 
coal lay in the insufficient number of 
fires per acre, and a shortage of trained 
help to light and refill the baskets; con¬ 
sequently the fires were too far apart, 
and only the trees nearest the fires were 
protected. Then again the coal baskets 
were almost burned down in three hours, 
and entirely gone in four, so that unless 
there are plenty of extra baskets ready 
(which was our case), early lighting will 
leave the trees without protection in 
the hours just before sunrise, and late 
lighting will let the trees and fruit freeze 
before the remedy is applied, and the 
latter is what we did. The small amount 
of help we got out of it came from the 
smudge covering the groves after sun¬ 
rise, causing a slow thawing out of the 
frosted fruit and less danger of cell 
rupture, which is the result of frosting 
of Citrus fruit. 
The conclusions arrived at as a direct 
result of the experiences of the season 
of 1908-1909 were that to be sure of 
success fires must be not more than 20 
feet apart, for very cold nights. Also 
that the fires must be started before the 
ground cakes in the least, so as to keep 
up the heat supply from the earth which 
practically ceases when the ground is 
hardened. This is obtained by the 
blanketing effect of the smoke cloud, 
preventing the rapid radiation of the 
latent heat of the earth. Further, fires 
should be kept going for at least two 
hours after the sun is up to minimize 
any damage which may have taken place, 
in spite of the work. The work in the 
season 1909-1910 was carried on with 
heavy crude oil burned in paper bags, 
filling them full and lighting them at 
the top; the bag burned down regularly 
from start to finish, was easy to light 
and simple to handle, the one failure, 
arising from the difficulty found in get¬ 
ting a bag that would not leak. The 
final limitation of the work that season 
came from the inability to get fuel when 
it was wanted. However, the following 
was gained: (1) A good lighting torch 
was developed by which a live man can 
light 500 fires an hour. (2) It was pos¬ 
itively proved that the result could be 
obtained. Also that it was of great 
importance to have on hand a supply of 
fuel sufficient for more than the worst 
ever known. 
The season 1910-1911 was entered with 
the growers owning 300 acres equipping 
their groves with pots designed to burn 
a cheap oil (a by-product of the re¬ 
finery), known locally as slop distillate, 
and costing us laid down in the grow¬ 
ers’ tanks, three cents a gallon. These 
pots were placed one to each tree, in 
the body of the grove and two to a 
tree on the windward side. The light¬ 
ing was begun at 30 degrees, the wind¬ 
ward side being lit first, then as soon 
as the temperature showed a tendency 
to drop every fourth row was lit and 
then others as the conditions demanded. 
With everything in the windward half 
of my grove burning and three-fourths 
of the balance lit, I had no trouble main¬ 
taining the temperature at 30 degrees, 
while it dropped to 22 degrees 100 feet 
to windward of the fires. The first 
fires were lit at 11 p. m., and the fires 
were not put out until 8 a. m., and the 
total expense for 1,400 trees was $18 for 
fuel and $5 for labor, beside my own 
time, and about four hours for my team 
hauling oil. From these figures you 
will be able to compute the expense of 
1*he work. The equipment cost us $375 
per 1,000 fires, for pots, tanks and oil 
enough for six nights of the worst we 
have seen. You know your own condi¬ 
tions and output better than I do so you 
will be better able to answer the ques¬ 
tion, “Is it worth while?” One of 
the hardest parts of the whole campaign 
is the organization of the growers for 
uniform work, or in fact to enthuse them 
for work at all. There are always the 
weather-wise who sees signs (in the 
moon or some other place which does 
not bear on our weather), that we are 
to have mild weather; others have heard 
somewhere that somebody tried to fight 
frost and failed, and so on. Nothing 
but persistent publication of known facts 
and keeping everlastingly at them (until 
several braver than the rest take hold) 
will win the day. j. e. adamson. 
Los Angeles Co., Cal. 
Orchard and Farm Fertility. 
E. B., Kendall, N. Y .—I am farming 100 
acres of sandy loam; have about 14 'acres 
of old (30 to 40 years) apple orchard, and 
10 of three-year-old, aiso seven acres 
dwarf Duchess pears. The remainder of 
the farm has been robbed for the orchards 
for years. As this is the off year for the 
apples, how can I build up the soil best 
and still meet expenses? I would like to 
put a portion of the manure in the orchard. 
Is it possible to put in some legume in the 
Spring to plow under for a potato crop the 
same year, planting potatoes about June 
15. If so what do you advise? You see 
the land is run to a certain extent, but if 
manured it responds to a wonderful extent. 
If you were placed as I am what would you 
do without too large an outlay of money 
to build up the farm again, and at the same 
time manure the orchards? 
Ans. —Canada field peas are about the 
only crop that would prove much help. 
They can be seeded in April. We should 
put oats with them. By the middle of 
June there will be a fair growth to be 
plowed under. It will help the potatoes, 
but some fertilizer should also be used. 
Try to work all the vegetable matter 
possible into that soil. Sow rye after 
potatoes and buckwheat after an early 
crop. Never let the soil lie idle, but 
keep covered with a living crop and put 
it under when full-grown. 
THE HAMILTON RESERVOIR 
ORCHARD 
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