NATURE DEFIED

Evening Star, Issue 21748, 16 June 1934, Page 25

NATURE DEFIED

STOVES TO WARM APPLE TREES To heat an orchard with oil stoves sounds as hopeful a proposition as trying to raise the temperature of the Atlantic with hot-water'pipes, Vet an amateur fruit grower at iJedlord (Mr A. G. Harrington) has shown that not only can it ho done, but that there is every appearance of its being economically sound (states the Belfast ‘ Daily Telegraph's ’ agricultural correspondent). , . Air Harrington is a retired analytical chemist who came home from Singapore a lew years ago and took up fruit growing as a hobby on five acres of land at Bedford. Jn 1031 a May frost changed the value of his apple crop from about £I,OOO to £25 in a single night. “ 1 decided that this sort of thing was intolerable,’’ Air Harrington told me, “ and that I simply would not put up with it. I began experimenting, and during my observations I found that the frosts that do the damage come between mid-April and the end of May, and nearly always on a calm, starry- night, with little or no wind. I also found that the blanket of frosted air extends only about 23ft upwards, and above that the air is warm. COMPLETELY EFFECTIVE.

“ I had heard that the Californian fruit growers had been using oil stoves since 1928 to ward off late frosts, but these cost over 20s each, and 40 are required to the acre. “ With a -little research of my own .1 havo been able to devise an oil stove that needs no attention once it is lit, costs only 3s 6d. and in my limited experience has proved completely effective in saving the blossom from the effects of a late frost, provided it is not a windy night. 1 do -not claim that the system is of any value for a wind frost, hut. so far as I can make out. April and .May frosts come practically on a windless night. “ The heater is the simplest affair in the world. Tt, is just a. round tin box like the hat boxes they used to call band boxes —with a lid and two air holes. Two gallons of fuel oil are placed in each, and they have home-made wicks of old sacking on a piece of wire. Forty are used to every acre, and they are placed in position in the middle of April ” ELECTRICAL DEVICE.

All ordinary maximum and minimum thermometer is fitted with an electrical device, which completes an electric circuit when the thermometer sinks to a pre-determined figure. When it touches this figure it sounds an alarm bell in jjr Harrington’s bedroom, and lie then knows that the temperature has fallen to danger point and he must get up and light Ids stoves. He does tins with a blow lamp, and can. easily get round an aero in 15 minutes.

He had to light his stoves once last year and three times the year before. The eost of the fuel each time the stoves are lit works out at 80s per acre. With tlje capital cost of the stoves at only £'7 per acredt seems well worth while if, perhaps, some hundreds of pounds are to be saved. “ It seems absurd,” Mr Harrington said, “ that the labour and hope of a whole year should be brought to nothing by a few hours 1 frost on one night.”

Needless to say, .Air Harrington was at first regarded as a, lunatic, but this year—the first that heaters have been available to fellow fruit farmers—--10,000 have already been distributed, and altogether 20.000 are likely to be in use.