The Elk Mountain pilot., 1916-10-26

temperature of n 2OO-acre orchard ten to ff-
teen degrees with much certainty the
tanitor heat the city mans fiat. 1t takes
what more labor than the last mentioned process,
but the satisfaction and the profits of heating all
outdoors" are surprisingly greater. Frost insur-
nnce for the fruit crop is now just practicable,
just as certain, and vastly more profitable for the
money expended than either fire or life insurance.
Insurance by fire for the fruit grower makes
vastly greater profits at n much smaller expense
than insurance against fire does for the merchant
or manufacturer The little outdoor oil stoves and
coal furnaces that have been sold by the millions
orchard owners In the last yea, and n half have
banshed from the fruit grower that annual early
spring nervous prostration from fear of frost that
periodic, paralyzing fear that he may go to bed at
night and awaken to find his whole years labor
chilled to death by sudden frost. The cumulative
despair of losing three four fruit crops in sue
cession that has put fruit growers of business
and made them dependent on charity day labor
Is past An orchard with n reasonably Industrious
and provident owner can be made to yield an aver
age crop every season far the frost is
cerned. Scientific frost fighting with fire is
much fact seed testing irrigation fertilizing.
spraying or pruning. II is the last and greatest
advance in systematic horticulture, and has placed
the fruit grower abreast of the scientific farmer.
Since the beginning of commercial horticulture,
the fruit grower has been mt the mercy of the ele
ments. He made all his calculations, all his plans,
all his business arrangements contingent the
hope that the frost would miss him. And before
the development of orchard heating the chances
against MIN were getting worse In the frost Delt-
In the modern, commercial orchard, the land, ma
chinery, labor, spraying equipment and cultivation
total as heavy an Investment as many manufacture
ing enterprises And when two or three crops in
succession wiped out by frost, the average
grower completely bankrupt
Smudging, the formation of n dense blanket
of smoke the orchard had been practlced with
varying degrees of success In some parts of Europe
Orchard heating proper was first used In Caliior-
MIA and the original California smudge pot is still
cmplOyeI
spring of 1910 several growers In the Grand valley
of Colorado experimental with the burning OF oil
in simple pots of the lard pail type, with the
result that they saved their entire crop on the heat
ed areas and lost 1t on the unheated tracts. The
spring of 1911 the adoption of the smudge pots
on every fruit section of the state, and they
reached the experimental stage in several other
states In the spring of 1872 there was not fruit
growing state without them, and many sections
of several states fully equipped us Colo
RADIO
Frost fighting is not easy job 1t is neces-
sary to have n force of men, Industrious and care
ful and observing to the last degree. And it is
pleasant task to rush out into the STILL cold dark
ness drudge the better part of the night TO save
your own your neghbors orchard In the early
days of orchard heating, man was detailed to
wntch the tested thermometers that were hung In
different parts of the orchard and at the farm
house some distance away from the fruit trees
If the temperature was not sinking fast, perhaps
the rancher went bed for brief nap setting his
alarm clock to wake him at intervals through the
night Nowadays he go TO bed with feeling
of security leaving the frost alarm thermometer
TO witch for him. This electric watchInan has for
its business end in the orchard specially made
thermometer, with fine platinum wire fused into
the mercury at the freezing point or ut whatever
is considered the danger point. AS soon as the
mercury sinks below this wire the circuit is broken
and the alarm at the head OF the orchard ooss
he'd rings out its warning. Any interruption or
tho current causes the bell to ring so that II the
anpnrntus should be put out of order 1t automat-
icolly tells itself.
But the orchardist is usually forewarheu' even
h.fore he goes to bed and makes ready for the
rr.v Inte i'm the afternoon he notices great heecy