The newspaper., 1908-06-26
PREVENTION OF FROST
TO THE FRUIT GROWERS ASSOCIATIONS
Of M0NIROSt. MESA AND OdTA
COUNTIES.

Your committee. chosen to investi-
gate the various frost preventative de-
vices and to ascertain the cheapest and
most practicable safeguard against
frost damage to fruit as applicable to
our particular section and climate con-
ditions on the Western Slope of Colo
rado. have. as per previous arrangement
and Instructions. visited Redlands,
Riverside. Los Angeles. Fresno. San
Jose and other outlying sections in CAL
ifornia. where il seemed most advisable
to investigate. and your committee
can truthfully affirm that, after inves-
tigating the various methods and means
Of preventing frost damage to fruit.
throughout the fruit growing district
Of California, which we visited. we saw
noindividual demonstration of what can
be done by heat to prevent frost dam
sge. better than the experiments of
y few Of our own energetic citizens on
the western Slope Of Colorado. during
last April. and while unprepared and
Wbthhtk A1htIEE CothAiAi0itrr Nfitl
have achieved success. this having
blazed the way for Others to follow.
They deserve the thanks of our own
people for their faith. courage and
energy.
In support of our own experiments
last spring. your committee has a large
accumulation of corroborative evidence
which leads US to believe that there is
no necessity for a grower to lose his
fruit crop under the degree Of cold ex-
perienced here last Spring.
We were somewhat surprised to learn
that the growers in California do not
generally resort to smudging fas they
call it, even in the sections where the
lowest temperatures are most prevalent.
but we were able to find in these Sec
tons few live. progressive, energetic
men who have practised smudging with
various devises and materials for sew
eral years. and always with perfect
success
We located and investigated a number
Of interesting and successful expert
ments, one or two which il seems per-
tinent to speak of. The superinten-
of seven hundred acre orchard of
Arus fruits related to us his expert
ence with section of this orchard. the
fruit on which was invariably killed by
severe freezing, and the Syndicate
owning the same had ordered these trees
grubbed out and the ground seeded to
alfalfa. The superintendent begged
one more year to try and save the crop,
which he successfully did by burning
oil. Since then he has discarded oil and
is burning coal in small wire baskets,
one to each tree, with the result that
these trees were not grubbed out, but,
with the aid of heat, are each year ma
turing crop.
A sample of this basket has been
forwarded to Grand Junction where 1t
may be seen and tested together with
other devices in the near future. The
cost of this basket together with .
stand upon which II sets is thirty
cents. 1t is fair to say however in con-
nection with the above, that this man
discarded oil. which il much cheaper
than coal in California, and used the
latter for the reason that he claimed that
the burning oil left q greasy SCOT upon
the fully grown fruit. We do not
link however that this deposit Of SCOT
would be any objection In Colorado, ~
our fruit 10 20 small At the time Of
firing that it has ample time togrow OF