HEAVY FRUIT LOSSES

Taranaki Central Press, Volume IV, Issue 331, 12 January 1937, Page 6

HEAVY FRUIT LOSSES

Cold Wave Sweeps Orchards In California. Press Association—Copyright. Los Angeies, January 11. With damage already estimated at £lOO,OOO, citrus growers to-day continued their light to save a fruit crop worth £20,000,000. Sixteen thousand workers have tended orchard heaters for the past two nights. Many growers mounted aeroplane propellers in towers in the groves to make an artificial wind to dispel the frosts. The freezing temperatures invaded even Imperial Valley, usually the hottest region of California. Aviators dropped 4001 b of foodstuffs for 35 men trapped by snow in a sulphur mine in the mountains 300 miles south of Los Angeles. Five deputy sheriffs, carrying food on a sled, are attempting to reach people who have been snow-bound for four days in another mine.

Parachutes carrying tiny bundles of food have been dropped for many families on Greenhorn Mountain.