White Bluffs spokesman. [volume] (White Bluffs, Wash.) 1907-1938, 1928-04-13

| Jack Frost made his first official
visit of the season to this valley last
Sunday morning when the tempera-
ture dropped to % degrees for a
couple of hours. He had been threaten
ing all of last week but failed to
lt.eak through until Saturday night,
1t is difficult to tell at this time Just
how much damage was done but it
is the general concensus of opinion
chat where heating was done pract-
ically all of the crop was saved and
where there was no heating there has
been some damage to all of the soft
fruit, particularly cherries and april
cots, and also some loss in the De-
licious apples.
Whether the damage will in any
way affect the commercial crop can
not be determined until the frozen
buds have fallen off and those that
are left set fruit. Because of the ex-
ceptionally light crop last year, the
trees are stronger and have much
more resistance and carry an unusual
number Of buds. They could easily
lose three-fourths Of the blossoms and
still carry a full crop if it was prop
erly distr. r.buted over the trees. The
trouble is that most of the damage
was done on the lower branches,
while the nearer the top of the trees
one gets the more good blossoms he
finds. The older trees seem to have
withstood the frost better than the
younger ones. The extent Of the cam
age is still being debated, but bar
ring any further injury one would
probably be safe in saying there will
be fair soft fruit crop while the
apples will require an unusual amount
of thinning.
One of the best articles on frost
damage, preventive measures, ETC.,
published in long time was prepared
by District Horticulturist Harter OF
Chelan county and published in the
Monday Wenatchee Daily World.
Mr.. Harter says:
To begin with, / wish to say that
frost may be of purely local or general
appearance and may be either white
or black, depending on atmospheric
conditions. The terms for frost may
be defined as fellows: 1st Frost-The
occurrence of any temperatures below
80 deg. Fahrenheit End. White Frost.
Frost accompanied by the deposit
OF white ice crystals on exposed sur
faces 3rd. Black Frost.-Frost un-
accompanied by such a deposit.
To growers having orchard heating
eruirment / would say that accurate
thermometers are very important part
in orchard heating equipment After
every freeze it is possible to find ex.
amples Of losses of fruit or needless
burning of fuel by growers who eitt1e,.
i have no stffernaofneters at all Or depend
rpon inaccurate ones.
Tf1e grower cannot afford to econo-
rr,ize on thermometers. Each ten-asre
block should have three or four one
OF which should be placed outside Of
the heated area as check. If the
orchard is on sloping ground a ther-
mometer should be supplied for every
Change in elevation of fifty feet. The
horizontal alcohol minimum ther-
mometer, which indicates the lowest
temperature reached, is the most
satisfactory type.
The fruit buds of nearly all de-
ciduous fruits are extremely suscep-
tlble to damage during the period of
from "a to 48 hours before they open.
The petals are still folded, but the
flowers are growing rapidly and are
extremely tender. Buds in this con-
dition are often injured by temper
| atures as high as those piven in the
table for small green fruits.
Below is given a table from the
California Experimental Station on
orchard heating, giving the stages of
development of various deciduous
fruits and the temperatures Fatren-
heit when they are susceptible to
damage by frost when exposed to 80
deg. temperature for 80 minutes or
less: