The Elk Mountain pilot., 1909-10-14
Telephone Safeguards Valuable
Fruit Crops

Oue VI tne Oeueuts Tue teiepnOue
has conferred upon the farming
population of the west is in safe.
guarding crops, With the coming
OF the seasons first severe frost il,
the fruit sections of Colorado and
Utah was reported the story OF ho y
fruit growers, by an organized us.
of the telephone, were able 10 COM
bat successfully the killing blight.
The farmers in this SECTION are
much elated over the success OF
their endesvors, and they are bless
ing the little instrument that made
po.sible their victory over Jack
Frost. A striking evidence OF the
value of the telephone lies in dis.
patches from the Grand Valley in
western Colorado. Across the liue
in Utah, late frost caused heavy
losscs. The cold was every bit -
intense in Colorado but here tue
farmers had their organization aud
the fruit was saved
In this particular locality the
rural telephone service was on the
lines of the Rocky Mountain Bell
Telephone Company, and the in
s;ruments in the fruit growers
hands were those Of tho Western
Electric Company. which makes
all the telephones used in the en-
tire Bell system. Th, story Of
how these Colorado growers b8ndsd
together for mutual profit 10 40 10.
terestiux one. The journal issued
by the telephone company dee
cribes il. in taess wordA:
"The Grand vsiIx3 - about
eighteen miles long aud from two
to four miles vide. The growers
divided the valley into districts
and employed man in each dis
trict to make thermometer readings
during cold nights or when the
weather forecasts indicated any
chance for fros,. These readings
were reported to the weather bureau
every hour. When the cold wave
started up the valley the observer
in the district 6rst reached by it re
ported the drop in temperature i'm.
nediately and continued to report
every few minutes a. the mercury
continued to go down. When the
danger point approached the wealth
-r bureau instructed the telephone
company to sdviss all growers in
the valley to start 6res in their
smudge pots. The telephone com.
pany sent the word 70 every grower
who had a telephons and 10 . few
minutes smudge pots we're burning
in all parn of the valley.
1.-The crop was thus saved aud
at minimum cost. 1t was estima-
ted by fruit expert who WAS on
the ground during these frosts that
it cost the growers one cent IN
hour to operate smudse pots and
there were approximately 10000
in use, making the total cost $500
an hour for the valley. II the tele
phone had not been used it would
have been necessary to operate the
smudge pots about ten hours each
cold night to he on the safe side.
AS it was they were operated only
about four hours, thus making a
saving of $l5. 600 each cold night
In addition to this, the grower
was enabled to sleep up to the time
of lighting the pots, which was an
important face when one reflects
that this took place in the busy
season, when growers had to work
hard all day.
"The growers of the Grand val
ley have perfected regular organ
izatinn in this connection and have
a systematized method for receiving
the telephone information. Their
auccraa has canaad othefa To taka
great interest in the matter With a
view to taking advantage OF the