Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1870-02-25

fruit-growers generally. A little timely
labor, little care and painstaking, will
save their fruit crops, and add largely to
their receipts as well as to their health
and comfort during the next summer.
The writer in the Chronicle and Se71ti-
net says
Being often asked Chow to preserve
fruit from the effects of frost late in the
spring." / have decided TO again give the
modus operandi, so that each one may use
il in time of need.
Freezing fruit does not necessarily de-
stroy it, for, if thawed out slowly in the
shade, no one would perceive any differ
ence inits taste orkeeping qualities. Thus,
apples, Irish potatoes, ETC., when hard
frozen, can, by being buried till the frost
is extracted, be used and kept for some
time, while growing peaches and apples,
though frozen solid, can, by the following
process, be so restored as to realize fair
crop, which would otherwise be utterly
lost:
Make once ia about forty feet, on the
Western and Northern side of the orchard,
q pile of about bushel of light wood,
cut from six to eight inches in length, and
split fine; by the side of which pile of
wet sawdust, tanbark or rotten wood must
be placed and thus used:
With a lightwOod torch laid ON the
ground, stand the prepared ightwood,
like an ordinary coal kiln, putting from a
peck to the whole amount prepared, &C
cording to the degree of cold. When the
pile is all ablaze, place over the whole,
previously prepared, bark from stumps,
so that the fires shall not be smothered,
then cover all with the net saWdust. ETC.,
with sitting motion, such as brick-layers
use when applying sand to the mortar
bed, but do not put too much on at once,
lest the fires be eXtinguished. a little ex-
perience will enable any ore to manage
this properly. BY lighting every other
pile first and afterwards firing the bal
ance, the best results are obtained. |
once lost part of my fruit by the winds
shifting into the northeast, aud would adj
wise placing fires on that side also. After
all the fires are lighted there will be moth
ing more to do than simply to prevent the
fires from blazing up, and the hand must
keep passing from one end to the other
now sprinkling on little saw-dust and
now putting on piece of bark, so as to
keep up a dense smoke, a smudge in fact,
never allowing blaze for a moment. 1t
IS a cold business, and q new beginner !
must not be discouraged by appearances,
but persevere till the warmth of the sun
has extracted all the frost from the fruit, |
which will be somewhere between eight |
and ten o'clock. Your fruit may be |
frozen hard, but if you follow the above
you will have fruit when your lazy neigh
Dor will have only leaves.
What time of night you will ask must |
we begin the fresl That will depend |
upon the size of the orchard. 50 that |
the fires are all going and under perfect |
control by early daylight, the danger will
be warded off. begun between two |
and three o'clock in the morning, and two |
Or three hands can make fifty fires by the
time sunlight would begin to do injury. |
And so complete is the protection, that /
fruit is protected from quarter to a half /
mile to the leeward of the fire.
AIlO1O no one to build q fire to keep |
,CdrDl at, is my order, and unless you
carry it out, you may as well not attempt |
he business. Moreover, do you lead the
hands all night long, for if you trust them,
lOn't complain that the remedy proves a
failure.
l have found that when the thermome-
er (Fahrenheit's) falls to fifty degrees by
} O'Clock at night, that the fruit will be /
n danger from frost the following morn
ng. BE sure to replenish your material
he following morning.