The Kennewick courier. [volume] (Kennewick, Wash.) 1905-1914, 1909-12-17

oofoeo was ~ above zero here. It
mao been colder there. Out side of
the smudged belt the temperature
went as low as 1S above zero last
spring. Inside the smudged area
the temperature did not fall below
%.
In 1907 it went below freezing 5
times there and i times here. 1903
III times there and 5 times here
while last spring it fell below the
freezing point 13 times at each place
making the total times below, % at
Grand Junction and ~ at Kenne-
wick. Last spring the smudges as
high as five times at Grand juno
ton and the coolest time it was nee
cssary to smudgc 10 hours continu-
ously from 9 p. IN. to a. m. and
the other nights for less period of
time two to four hours.
On the whole he concluded that
conditions were more favorable here
frost fighting than in Grand juno
ton where it met with such signal
success. They were induced to take
up the fight on a wholesale plan on
the basis Of the experience of a
grower named Hamilton who tried
out comparatively few pots using
kerosene in the spring of 1908. A
carload of pots had been shipped
but the consignee was unable to pay
for them and they were unused.
Hamilton learned from the Wealth
er Station that a heavy frost was
promised for the night and got hold
OF 1000 pots and. spread them
over ten acres of the 20 acres he
owned. From this ten he market
ed $1,000 worth of fruit while on
the unsmudged ten beside it there
was not enough to pay for the pick
ing. Previous to .906 there had
not been heavy losses from frost
but in Grand Junction they had
practically total failures, 1906---8,
but saved their crop in 1909 as the
figures before gives as to their sales
convincingly shows.
On the basis of Hamilton ex-
perience they bought and used $50
600 pots or heaters Of different de-
signs and shipped and used 81 tank
cars of oil which cost them 5 cents
per gallon and can be laid down
here for the same price. Besides
the oil they used hundreds of tons
of coal which is easily obtained To-
cally. They smudged about IS to
70 percent of their total fruit acre.
age. The entire community was
organized to handle the finances
and also do the work. During
his stay there Mr.. Sly did not find
one Ierson dissatisfied with the
results of their work. The coming
season they are planning to use
half million heaters and twice as
much fuel if necessary.
To handle the work the Chamber
of Commerce kept two systems Of
Card indexes, one showed how
many acres of orchard each man
had and how many pots he inten'l-
ed using and the further question if
he was able to pay for them. If
not he was allowed money to do 90
from the banks on the guarantee of
the Fruit Growers Association and
given lien on the pots. The
Grand Valley National Bank car
ried about 400 notes for those buy
ing pots and oil and the result en-
abled all to take up their notes
promptly.
The second system Of cards was
kept by the secretary of the Cham
Der of Commerce was to keep ac-
count of the help available for
handling the heaters at night and
provide for its distribution where
/ it was needed. Allreduests for help
sent in by the ranchers were turned
over to the secretary for handling.
1t required strenuous work on the
four nights that they mudged