The Emmett index. [volume] (Emmett, Idaho) 1893-1925, 1919-05-08
FROST DOES IMMENSE
DAMAGE
Loss of More than Half Million
Dollars to Prune and
Apple Crops

Emmett orchardists suffered loss
estimated at between $500,000 and l
million dollars by freezing weather
Saturday night. Practically the en-
tire apple and prune crops in the or
chards on the bench and lower lands
in the valley were destroyed. The
government thermometer registered
% degrees during the night. The
lower end of the valley also suffered.
Payette about the same as here. Fruit
land and New Plymouth weathered the
cold much better, and better than half
a crop of apples and prunes are re-
ported.
The bright spot is the Slope. From
the railway clear arround to and in
cluding the R. B. Shaw orchard east
of town the damage is very slight and
there will be full crop of peaches,
apricots, pears, apples, prunes and
grapes. Of course, there are spots
where the frost got in its work, but
these are on lower lying lands AS
an instance, the Flagler sweet cherry
orchard is almost a total loss and ap-
Piles were badly injured. Frozen Dog
ranch was hard hit, the prunes being
killed and the fruit on the other trees
on the lower lands being badly dam
aged.
The large prune orchards of West
lake and Ed Hayes we're entirely put
out of business for this year. On the
bench, all fruit is killed, except
strip on the north side along the |
canal The former Workman orchard
is intact, but this is only family
orchard. In that section the loss runs !
up into the hundreds of thousand Of
dollars Up to Saturday night the
prospects for immense crop in those
large and magnificent orchards ware
never brighter. The real heavy losers
are the Idaho Orchards Company, DR..
Gabler and w. H. Sissler. The e,p-
est sympathy is expressed on evry
hand for Miss Dora Merrill, of the
Idaho Orchards. Her loss, after Years
of patient waiting for the trees to
come of bearing age and her splendid
care of the property, is a severe one.
Many other orchardists are heavy
losers. Walter Larkin yesterday
placed his loss at $4,000. Tom Hance
estimates his loss at $4,000. Here
and there, in favored localities, a
few orchards escaped on the bench. !.
One of them is the former Crouch {
place north of town, now owned by {
the Bank of Emmett. I
Here in the "flat," the John Car {
"a bright and shining star. 1t is un- !
injured. The same thing happened
last year. This fact is nothing short t
of being phenomena. 1t is unpro- i
tected. w. C. Tucker advances a I
plausible theory. He says the heat and
smoke from the sawmill trash burner {
passes over the orchard when the t
wind gets in the northwest, and pro- 7
tects it from frost. Maybe so. '
R. B. Shaw made trip over the I
South Slope yesterday and says con-
ditions are excellent everywhere. War p
rem Nelson and Callie Burt will have S
a full crop of everything. The G. A. a
Warden orchards are in fine condi-
tion, they state: Peter Ries loses part
of his prunes, but grapes, apples and
peaches are o. K. The same may be
said of the Obermeyer ranches. The =
]. L. Jensen people estimate about !
one-third crop of peaches, with cher u
ries little less, and the Wills places
will show some loss. George Coulson =
reports all cherries gone, half
peach crop and a third of crop of =
prunes. The Ed Modin orchards just
above him are uninjured. Will Tucker .
reports his cherries all killed, but his D
other fruit, including apricots, full
crop AS a freakish incident, Mr..
Fucker says the frost picked out two is
rows in the middle of his bean field in
md killed every vine; the rest of the u,
patch was unharmed r.
w. c. Stone says it will never hap tn
zen again. His company's loss on the w
Nestlake orchards he places at $780, of
100. He is confident smudging for
hree nights would have saved the
ruit He will use smudges hereafter.
sit
New Enterprise Ia