112 
FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 
in more before you rest, even though the 
mercury is rising, otherwise you may have 
worked in vain. 
If practicable it is best to have a large 
supply stored in the groves where it is 
easily accessible. 
If wood is used make it four feet long 
and leave it coarse. This is a saving in 
several ways. Part should be lightwood 
to start with. Lay it right so that it will 
not waste by burning too rapidly. 
The right way is in the form of a capitol 
V with its point towards the tree to the 
southeast and resting on the middle of a 
stick at right angles with its axis. Place 
the kindlings in the acute angle of the top 
sticks and cover with a dry palmetto leaf 
if such is handy. 
Where fires are to be built banking is 
not necessary and the holes are a nuisance 
in the night, where it is done. 
To save oranges start fires when the 
mercury gets down to 27 degrees above 
zero. For the trees up to time of starting 
growth, 25 degrees. After growth has 
started make it 29 or 30 degrees. 
Don’t trust to long distance weather 
predictions or to the ringing of electric 
IdcIIs attached to thermometers outside. 
Don’t trust to high-priced thermometers 
after the first year of their service. 
Get a dozen or two of the 15 to 25 cent 
ones, test them and mark the variations 
and they will be the most reliable that you 
are likely to find. Put them about in the 
groves, as far from the effects of the fires 
as possible, and go to them often. Put 
one or two way outside to windward. 
Watch the Weather Bureau reports 
closely. It seldom fails to give notice of 
the worst that is likely to come, and to do 
it well ahead of the arrival of the cold 
wave, but don’t trust absolutely even.to it 
as it is possible for cold to come from a 
point outside its range of observation. 
When it predicts a degree of cold below 
the danger point have some one watching 
the mercury even after it may have gone 
up a little because of the dew point hav¬ 
ing been reached. It may go down later. 
Call out the men in good time and start 
a fire here and there even before real dan¬ 
ger has arrived, if mercury is steadily fall¬ 
ing. 
Pay them good wages for night work, 
more than for day work unless their em¬ 
ployment depends upon success so that 
they are interested as well as their em- ' 
ployer in preserving your property. 
Hire by the hour and give them plenty 
of hot coffee and a good lunch in the mid¬ 
dle of the night. 
Trees do not burn easily in a cold night 
but better put the fires in the middles as 
the heat is radiated in all directions. 
Be sure that mulching is kept out from 
under the trees and away from the fires. 
Have help enough and have the fires 
looked to often. 
Call on your friends if short of help. 
You will be surprised to find how ready 
even wealthy tourists are to help a man 
who shows energy and foresight in caring 
for his property. 
Watch the fires closely on a windy 
night. On calm nights the job is a de¬ 
lightful one after you once get at it. 
Windbreaks, if such there be, should not 
be tight ones except they be of the Prof. 
McKinney kind. 
Smoke and the hot sand under the fires, 
both help to protect in the morning and if 
the sun comes up bright throw the wood 
apart so as to make all the smoke possible 
if you think any of the fruit is frosted. 
Chunks that have been partly burned 
make good kindlings for next time or they 
