The daily sentinel., 1909-05-06
PAPERS THROUGHOUT THE
COUNTRY TELL ABOUT uS
Junction's Smudging Cam
paign the Theme of Many rtn
toriaIs and News stories

~, daiIies and little dailies-
.,,s,,-hout ps the country there =
l. have aDpeared editorials anu
= other comment upon the re-
4. markanle victory which tne
:. Grand valley has won over the
4. Frost King. and for many uass =
4. to come such editorials ana COM
+ ment will appear IN papels =
:. throughout the country Por-
= tions of The Daily Sentinels
!. comprehensive accounts OF the
!. f,eht with the frost and freezes
!. have been reproduced in many
i. napers. Far and near Granu
!. junction is being spoken oil as
Z. the center of a great fruit-rals-
4. ing district that has proven con-
+ clusively that it has a guarantee
:. I. !. i. + = + + +
Yesterday the following most in
teresting and thoughtful editorial ap-
reared in the Colorado Springs Ga
zette under the heading Making
Millions for Colorado
Last Thursday night when a sud
den cold wave swept through the OF
chard-covered valleys of Colorado, al
ready fragrant with young blossoms,
an army of men. women and chlldren,
working with frantic energy, fought
spectacular battle with the forces
of nature for stake worth millions
of dollars.
ssWhen the mercury sank to the
freezing point, degrees above the
temperature at which the buds freeze,
thousands of smudge pots, burning
either oil or charcoal, were lighted,
and all through the long night the
fruit growers and their families. aid
ed by citizens of neighboring towns,
worked like Trojans to keep the
fires lighted and replenished. When
daybreak brought an end to the
struggle victory lay with the work
ers-the buds were practically un-
harmed.
But this was only the beginning.
Again Friday night, when a still
more dangerous frost came on, and
third time Saturday night when
the mercury sank below the crucial
points degrees-the battle was
waged and the fruitful valleys were
bright with the glow of a myriad fires
over which hundreds of watchers
kept ceaseless vigil.
THE effort served its purpose: the
heat and fumes from the burning oil
and coal kept the atmosphere of the
orchards at temperature many de-
grees above what 1t would otherwise
have been. and sufficiently high to
protect the buds from injury. The
result was that a fruit crop worth
millions of dollars. otherwise doomed
to destruction over night, was saved,
and at cost only of some hard work
and few thousand dollars for labor,
equipment and fuel. Wherever an
adequate number of smudge pots
were used and ample precaution was
taken to keep them burning so long
arel I'm n .s.lx
low, the damage was nominal
conservative estimate places the loss
at 10 per cent.
''The danger of frost is not yet
over, 1t is true; but the efficacy of the
smudging process as demonstrated
last week is such as practically to in
sure the safety of the crop. And this
holds not only for this year, but in
succeeding years; in other words, the
fruit growers of Colorado, who, by
the application of scientific methods,
have in the past successfully combat
ted blights and insect pests, now have
won immunity from the enormously
expensive ravages of Jack Frost
what this means not only to the
owners of orchards but to the busi-
ness men of the fruit regions and to
the state as whole can hardly be
estimated To the growers them
seiVes IL means fortune instead of
ruin; to the business men it means
almost as much, and to the state as
whole it means not only millions
OF dollars of assured annual income
put stimulation of the demand for
homes and farms which is RAPIDLY
ming up every available foot of cul-
tivable land and bringing to the state
increased population, wealth and
productivity"