The Kansas City sun. (Kansas City, Mo.) 1908-1924, 1916-10-28

clouds hurrying from the northwest, chased by a
bitter wind which seems to have Been intended
for January, rather than this April night. He goes
to the post office for the days mail and in every
window sees the warning of the diligent local gov
eminent weather forecast: "Freezing temperature
tonight" By seven o'clock the government Their
mometer is at 81 and falling fast. AS Z 80 O'Clock
he telephones the weather man and gets the reply:
"Bitter cold all over the country temperature Is
already down to thirty-seven in many parts of the
valley and will drop to twenty degrees on the
western slope of Colorado tonight" By eight
o'clock 1t has fallen to 80, his alarm begins to ring
and he knows that King Frost with his icy-fngered
warriors is marching on the camp. Steam whistles
are beginning to shrek all through the valley to
warn the growers of the all-night siege. Farm
wagons laden with coal and oil rattle past, giving
evidence that the ~laggards who have been hoping
to the last, are beginning TO get their heating ma
chinery into action. Already the early ones are
firing heavily. Clouds of smoke hang low over the
trees, and the little spots of fire beneath punctuate
the blackness with rays of hope.
The orchard fremen dash for the trees, a torch
in one hand, and a gasoline can to aid in quick
lighting in the other. Dashing a few drops of gaso-
line on the oil, they apply the torch, and the blaze
is at work. The lighting is done as fast as the
men can walk through the orchard, leaving a trail
of smoke and fire behind them. In fifteen min
utes each man has his tract of orchard transformed
into a sea of flame under a cloud of smoke.
Then comes the first period of rest. The men
gather in the packing house or barn, for lunch or
smoke, making occasional trips to the thermome
tiers to see that the fire is doing its work. By $50
o'clock the thermometers outside the orchard reg
lister 2S, and those in the area of heat show a COM
Portable 81. Then the frost fighters know that the
battle is half won, for keeping up the temperature
is a good deal easier than raising it when 1t has
once reached the init. The rest is a matter of
vigilance. If the heater is of the regulated type,
with enough fuel to burn through the night or
longer, a few men are left to watch and open
the burners wider if a later sudden fall of tempera-
ture shows that more fire is needed. If the heaters
are of the uniform single-burner type, they may
need to be retilled when they are nearly burned out,
If the frost battalion should come back for another
charge. The outside thermometers drop to "a, and
those in the orchard stand at 80, the danger mark
of the orchard frost fighter. The heaters are
opened wider, or reflled if burning low, and the
mercury shoots up TO 33. The eight degrees of
frost has been driven away, and If the oil supply is
plentiful, and the labor unfagging, the orchardst
may now consider the battle won. When the sun
has shed his rays over the trees long enough to
make the outside temperature more nearly that of
the orchard, the heaters are shut off by merely
putting on the covers.
Heating in the spring of 1911 was much easier
than that of the year before, and proved more con-
clusively than ever the effectiveness of the fires.
The crop In the Colorado fruit area for 1911 aver
aged about 90 per cent. The unheated orchards