66 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
in relation with the direction of the wind 
gives good advice. 
We made our first installation /four 
years ago but so far we have never fired. 
Doubtless we have much to learn about 
the actual operation. These preparations 
for orchard heating are expensive and 
handling the oil is a nasty job, but if 
we save one crop one time all costs would 
be more than balanced. A freeze is likely 
to strike the orange section any winter; 
indeed the probability increases with every 
passing year. Some localities had cold 
last November sufficiently severe to dam¬ 
age fruit and even cut back trees. Best 
be prepared! 
Discussion 
Mr. Hart: I am hoping that at our 
next meeting, we will have a little more 
discussion from the floor. This time there 
was almost none of it. The time was 
almost all given to listening to papers from 
the stage, and addresses. I think it is 
very desirable that we should get the opin¬ 
ions and hear the experiences of members 
of the Society and it adds immensely to 
the value of the report we get out. 
I have just wondered in the matter of 
Mr. Stevens' report on Orchard Heating. 
You will remember Mr. Stevens' infer¬ 
ence was that there was no use in protect¬ 
ing groves. He said he had protected 
his groves for forty years in different 
ways and tried all methods, .and where 
he had fired and saved the crop, his neigh¬ 
bors who had not fired, saved theirs. 
Now, in my opinion, that is the wrong 
impression. I know I am $16,000 or 
$17,000 better off today than if I had not 
had protection. I would dislike to have 
the impression prevail that protection of 
the crops in the northern parts of the 
state, is not necessary. 
I am strongly in favor of having more 
time given to discussion in future meet¬ 
ings. I appreciate-the difficulties of pre¬ 
paring beforehand a program that will 
work out just as you want it to, but I 
think, if necessary, we had better leave 
out some of the papers and have more 
discussion from the floor. 
Mr. Skinner: I think Mr. Hart is en¬ 
tirely right about that. I sometimes dis¬ 
cuss from the floor, more, perhaps, than 
I should. 
Now, this meeting this morning I 
would not have missed for anything. I 
think it is one of the best we have had. 
I think a great deal of it. Those who 
have gone do not know what they have 
missed. 
In regard to this fire protection. I have 
spent a good deal of money in fire pro¬ 
tection. I felt I could not afford to be 
without it, even if it is yet an experiment. 
But I do not know how we are going to 
arrive at conclusions if we do not try 
these experiments out and find how they 
work in a practical way. 
Take the advance in orchard heaters. 
The heater five years ago was a joke. 
They get water in them, it is true, and we 
had to learn all these defects by experi¬ 
ence. Take this new heater that is on 
the market, it is something we have all 
been wanting; it generates the gas in the 
lower part and consumes it in the stack. 
But in the construction of the heater there 
is one weak point, and that is the point 
where the collar comes out of the top of 
