FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
75 
The cost in California will be perhaps a 
little less than here, as he figures his oil 
at 2^2 c per gallon, while with us even the 
Mexican Crude will cost in the neighbor¬ 
hood of 3c. The following figures are 
based on the cost of one hundred heaters 
per acre: 
100 heaters.$100.00 
Storage space for 1240 gal. oil . . 15.77 
Pipe line. 12.75 
1 tank wagon to 14 acres, per acre 8.63 
Pails, 1 to 3P2 acres, per acre. . . . .60 
Torches, 1 to 2^ acres, per acre .40 
Thermometers, 1 to 10 acres, per 
acre. .30 
Telephone . 1.50 
Oil in heaters—700 gal. at 2^c 17.50 
Oil in storage, 1000 gal. at 2j4>c . 25.00 
Total.$182.45 
This applies as first cost. The inter¬ 
est, depreciation, deterioration, handling 
and filling he estimates as $33.34 per acre 
per year, which is really the price of the 
insurance. Of course if the heaters are 
burned the labor of lighting and of re¬ 
filling would be additional to this; but 
these figures will serve to show you to 
some extent whether you could afford to 
carry crop and tree insurance of this 
kind or not. 
Personally I feel that we cannot afford 
to be without it. In my mind there is no 
question but what there will be more effi¬ 
cient heaters developed in the next few 
years, but in the meantime we are not 
going to sit idly by and see our investment 
lost, waiting for someone to invent a bet¬ 
ter heater. 
Discussion. 
Mr. Darby: I would like to ask if 
he has ever experimented with coke. 
Mr. Stevens: No; I have never used 
it. 
Mr. Darby: We have used coke with 
excellent results. However, we have 
had no very severe frosts. We used 
forty heaters to the acre and about 20 
or 25 pounds of coke. We find 25 
pounds of coke will burn ten hours. 
Our coke comes from Birmingham, 
Ala., and costs us there about $3.50 
per ton, and the freight is about the 
same. That will make about 28c per 
heater; forty to the acre will be $11.20. 
Mr. Stevens: Is your receptacle for 
burning expensive? 
Mr. Darby: No, sir; about a dollar. 
Of course, on a few the freight would 
be excessive, but we went in together 
and bought a car-load, which greatly 
reduced the rate. 
They are very easy to light; there is 
an opening in them at the bottom 
which is filled with light wood, and 
then touch a match to it and that is 
about all that is necessary. The way 
to extinguish them is to tip them over. 
Mr. Stevens: Is there any way to 
regulate them? 
Mr. Darby: No; you just have to let 
them go. We can raise the temperature 
ten degrees without any trouble. 
Mr. Stevens : Then you are raising the 
temperature to 38 degrees when you need 
only 30 degrees. 
Mr. Darby: We have forty heaters to 
the acre. One advantage to the coke is 
that it does not depreciate. It is of as 
