Arizona republican., 1911-12-02

N@S&
 leum. applying the torch at the bot i tom of the basket a moment after ward. A man ought to light more
 than three baskets per minute. If 1 the temperature rises before the fuel
 in the baskets is entirely burned out We send men into the field with pitchforks to Overturn the baskets and scatter the burning coal From the glowing coals we later gather up
 considerable quantities of coke and , partly consumed coal which effects an appreciable saving of the latter and furnishes us with sufficient coke to replenish the baskets that must be refilled the following day from the wagons that drive through the or chards loaded with coal and kindling The temperature at which we have
 been lighting the fires has been more or less relative. A drop just
 before sunrise is frequent occur renee. and often at such times we
 may have a reading as low as 26
 degrees without requiring snudge
 fires. because it does not remain
 there long. Again. if the temperature
 at 10 D. m. fell below g degrees and
 continued to fall until at midnight it
 was 25 degrees. as it did last winter
 and the winter before. still we held
 off. but only for this reason-that we
 did not dare start our fires too early
 lest our fuel become exhausted and
 we find ourselves at daylight without
 enough of it left to protect us against
 the eXtremest low temperature that
 we always expect at that hour AL
 though we had 112 baskets per acre,
 we have practiced lighting only one
 quarter of them at a time at inter
 vals of about two hours. Thus. you
 See We had only enough to keep 2S
 baskets burning strong for eight
 hours as after the second hour the
 basket does not continue very effec-
 tive. Burning that number of coal
 baskets per acre, we have been un- able to do more than hold a falling temperature, or raise an even tem- perature more than one degree.
 With the above equipment We have felt altogether too insecure. Accord ingly last winter We tried out 800 Bolton oil pots. burning in them slop distillate from the refiner- ies. Burning so of these per acre, we were able to raise a temperature of 9 degrees up to 30 degrees and the pots burned vigorously for more than five hours. After this experience we have installed 10000 of the two-gallon Bottoms this year. placing them 56 pots per acre. By actual test with l stove distillate" testing 29 degrees 1 Beaume. we know that these pots will | burn freely for twelve hours and | leave in the bottom of the pot less | than onc-quarter of a pint of resi- | due. We have feared the soot from | the oil pots. but where we used the | 800 pots last year We did not notice | any difference in the soot factor We | still have the coal baskets in the or chard and on mild occasions will rely Dn them until we are more certain i about the sooting. But our policy 1 yill be henceforth to fire before the reaches the danger point, which We shall probably fix at 2s de- grees. though we often judge from l pan of water as much as from a thermometer. When the water be- gins to freeze q firm. solid layer on top. it will mean fire" at once. This sometimes happens at 90 degrees. With the added equipment. We feel
 hat We can handle any temperature
 hat has ever been known in this re- zion.
 Now as to comparative cost: The basket and stand together will cost ibout r. cents, the two-gallon oil pot galvanized about 2 cents. One filing of the basket costs from s to
 10 cents and will burn possibly three lours One filling of the oil pot with wo gallons of stove distillate will 'ost about cents and will burn about
 welve hours While we have not made very careful tests of the exact mount of heat given off. we think rom our observations and experi- nenting to date. that the oil pot ,ives off more heat than the coal { ,asket in the same length of time. [ At any rate, it seems more effective. Tor each hour of burning the oil costs ess than one-third as mush as the I oal. s
 Another valuable feature of the oil s that a burning pot of it can be s instantly by putting on I he cover and not q particle of the l fuel is wasted And they [ re very quickly and easily lighted. We shall use for this purpose two uart machinist's oiling can with l4- q nch squirt tube cut off so as to 'l cave three eighth inch opening at C