The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1898-02-21
WARNING ALL OUTDOORS
THE TASK OF ORANGE GROWERS
ON COLD NIGHTS
Fires and Smudge Kept Going Con-
stant1y and Close Watch Main
tanned On the Thermometer
Efficient Work of Pail of Smoke
-Temperature Raised.
From the New York Sun.


LOS ANGELES, Feb. 14.-For the sec
ond time this winter the orange grow
ers of Southern California are engaged
in the task of warming up all out
doors in order to save their crop. or
oranges. The orchardists of this region
have already learned the lesson which
has cost Florida so dear, and can meet
without much loss temperatures which
would freeze stiff the incomes of the
Florida growers. If the orange
growers of the Southern peninsula
cared to make the same efforts and
take the same trouble they could fight
Jack Frost just as successfully as do
the orchardists of Southern California.
If it had not been for constant watch
fulness, the all-night labors of an army
of men, miles and miles of smudge fires
of crude oil and burning baskets of
coal half the orange crop of Southern
California this winter would have been
frozen as badly as was that of Florida
Southern California is On the north
ern edge of the citrus belt of the West
err Hemisphere and may be touched
by injurious frosts at any time during
the three winter months. There are
least from frost. and there are low
lands where oranges are sure to be
frozen every winter. Not many Of
these lowlands are planted in citrus
fruits, and those that are will un-
doubtedly be dug up and devoted to
some harder crop.
The bulk of the orange land, in the
great valleys back from the coast, may
not be touched by an injurious frost
for three or four years, and again,
there may be three or four frosts in
one winter. A cold wave is likely to
come at any time during the ripening
season. But the signal service gives
ample warning and the orchardists
have their fires ready 10 light when
ever the thermometer drops to the
danger point. This winter has been
one of unusual severity and the orange
growers have been waging a particu-
larly lively and interesting battle with
Jack Frost. So far they are the win
ners. for not more than 10 per cent Of
the unusually large orange crop has
been injured.
1t has been necessary to determine
by much patient experiment just how
much cold an orange will stand. 1t
has been pretty we'll settled that, as
the juice Of a moderately ripe orange
is 10 per cent sugar, 1t will not CONCEAL
above % degrees Fahrenheit Tests
have shown that "a degrees for q period
of two hours produced no injury pre-
sumably because of the oil in the skin
of the fruit. When a cold night is ex-
pected the orchardist simply sits up
with his thermometer all night if
necessary, and If it drops to % de-
grees any time before in the morn
ing, he hustles out his employees and
fires are lighted all over the orchard
Sometimes wire baskets are used, hold
ing each ten pounds of soft coal and
supported on iron rods driven into the
ground. Others use buckets of crude
oil and some build fires of green pep
per boughs, over which they scatter
fine manure.
In one grove thirty fires to the acre
of pepper boughs, straw and manure
raised the temperature 6 degrees and
saved the oranges. In another, where
twenty coal baskets to the acre were
burned, the temperature was raised 4
degrees. In one test buckets of crude
oil were set blazing three rows apart
all through big orchard and the tenn
perature was raised degrees, so that
not an orange was hurt. All night
long the thermometer and the fires
must be watched constantly, and the
men taking care Of an orchard travel