The daily sentinel., 1908-05-09


w. C. Huntoon, returned Thursda,
night from four or five days bust
ness trip to Grand Junction and 9th
er points on the western slope where
he made a somewhat exhaustive in.
quiry into the condition of the fruit
crop. which he reports to be in a
maryelously good shape considering
the recent frosts throughout Colo
rado and adjoining states.
The story Mr.. Huntoon tells of the
saving of the fruit crop in the Grand
Junction district, by human agency
is almost as wonderful as a chapter
from the Arabian Nights Entertain
ments, but differs from the famous
Oriental narratives in the fact, that it
is entirely true. When the weather
bureau at Grand Junction last Sat
urday afternoon announced that a
frost serious enough to imperil the
orchards was likely the following
night everybody at once got busy"
to prevent, If possible, disaster to
one of the principal industries of that
section. Steam whistles were blown,
bells run and general excitement pre-
vailed. Practically the entire popu-
lation of the fruit growing sections
of the community turned out to min
imize the effects of the expected
freeze by smudging the orchards in
the hope of rescuing at least por-
ton of the crop They were Joined
by hundreds of people from the city
who turned out to help in the bene-
ficient work. Men, women and
children exerting themselves to save
what nature in her generous mood
had provided, but which in sterner
moment it threatened to destroy.
Everywhere fires were built and
smudges started to raise the temper
ature and forestall the dreaded frost.
Requisition was made upon all of the
trash and worthless combustible
matter at hand and the fire and
smoke was kept up until morning
and during the four succeeding
nights. 1t was hard work, but i'm
pending disasters require heroic eff
forts to avert them and in this par
ticular instance, was eminently sue
cessful. Almost every character of
refuse burnable was drawn upon by
the orchardists to make a smudge
among the fruit trees; brush, leaves.
manure, everything that would con-
tribute to the desired end was used
The owners of the coal mines at Pali-
sade generously gave away hundreds
of wagon loads of coal to smudge
WlIn WHICH was DdSdtCiiC III
comparison with the results achieved.
Several car loads of crude oil was
hurried to Grand Junction from
Florence and was found to be use
full fuel in the work of smudging.
Palisade, where the ranchers were
particularly active in the efforts to
save the fruit, will, according to Mr..
Huntoon, have one of the biggest
horticultural crops in its history. At
Fruita, twelve miles west of Grand
Junction, practically nothing was
done in the way of smudging, and, as
consequence, fruit of all kinds will
be almost total failure. Every
where as one drives along the coun-
try roads in the vicinity of Grand
Junction can be seen the difference
between orchards that were smudged
and those that were not. Paonia
saved everything by smudging and
will have full crop of apples,
peaches, pears, etc. There was a
much heavier loss at Delta, largely
by reason of the neglect of fruit
growers to thoroughly smudge their
orchards.
One man at Palisade spent $500
on smudges and saved fruit crop
that loads of slack, which was found
admirably adapted for the purposes
to be attained.
In some of the orchards about
Grand Junction the temperature