FLORIDA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
56 
were used instead of wooden covers, the 
trees made as much growth in these 
boxes as where the wooden top covers 
were removed. 
Mr. Butler—Last winter I covered a 
quarter of my grove so that there was 
almost no sunlight at all, just to see what 
the result would be; and the only result 
I know so far was that it was three weeks 
behind the other part. I suppose, be¬ 
cause I kept the sunlight off. 
Mr. Hart—I would like to cite Mr. 
Shooter’s case. He covered a grove of 
seven acres tight during the winter and 
he found he could keep his trees dormant 
for three weeks later. My shed is cov¬ 
ered so that it gives a half shade, and 
those trees start earlier than they do out¬ 
side. It is largely a matter of shutting 
off the light or admitting it. 
What Mr. Stevens said in regard to 
dieback is one point that I spoke of last 
year, and cautioned those in regard to 
working their trees too much. I saw an 
indication of dieback at that time. It 
was one of the things that we had to 
learn under the new conditions. I learn¬ 
ed that it would do that and the reason is 
because there is so much more moisture 
and warmth in there, which makes the 
soil ferments more active. And if you 
work your soil a little too much or ferti¬ 
lize with an excess of nitrogen, you have 
a case of dieback. I just quit working 
in the shed, and don’t intend to work my 
trees until they show some sign of need 
of nitrogen again. This has cured the 
trouble and the trees have put on a fine 
growth. 
Where the covering laths are an inch 
or more thick, they shut off the light 
very much more than laths three-eighths 
of an inch thick. If the laths are thick, 
the sun’s rays cannot get down between 
them until it gets high in the heavens, 
and they are soon shut off in the after¬ 
noon. More than that, the thick lath 
does not last as long, for the moisture 
cannot dry out before fermentation be¬ 
gins and causes rot, while thin laths dry 
out, keep sound and only wear out. The 
result of having thin laths and having 
more light is that my shedded grove put 
on a full bloom this year, and, as stated, 
a good even crop right through the 
grove, so I have no reason to complain. 
Anyone who would grumble and want 
more would be a little selfish. The mer¬ 
cury went down outside to 24 degrees at 
my place. That is lower than it went up 
this way. At that time the growth under 
the shed was perhaps two to six inches 
long and carrying blossom buds in 
plenty. I had about one fire to five or 
six trees under my shed and kept the 
temperature above the danger point. 
Out in the open grove I had small fires. 
I had a small pile of wood at each tree. 
I fired every other pile, every other row. 
It seemed to be a perfect success, pro¬ 
tecting those large trees covered also 
with fruit buds with small fires in the 
open ground. I don’t think we could 
have done as well with small trees. 
Only one fire to four trees kept the 
mercury six degrees and more above 
outside temperature, while I was pre¬ 
pared to fire at every tree, but had no 
need to do so. 
Another point that I want to discuss 
is that we have freezes every four or five 
years that will destroy the crop if it is on 
the tree at the time. With the shed, 
you can save your crop; the shed is an 
added safety. Mr. Fairbanks thinks and 
I think that if the trees could get large, 
as they were before, they would be less 
liable to injury by freeze. With the 
