Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1911. FIGHTING FROST.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10266, 19 June 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, JUNE 19, 1911. FIGHTING FROST.

The Hawke's Bay orchardists who are enquiring in the United States about methods of fighting frost mil readily obtain plenty of useful infor--0313*1011. According to a, writer in the "Technical World," in three years the idea of warming an. orchard artificially has spread like fire through several of the States. The' efficacy of the method lias been proved beyond a .shadow of doubt, and now manufacturers of oil heaters are turning these things out by the hundred thousaud. It is estimated that from £15,000,000 to £20,000,000 is lost by -the (fruit-growers of the United •States-every year through, frost, and Colorado growers say that in that State £BOO,OOO was saved In 1909 by ~orchard-heating. The oilheater is said to give. the best results. Wood and coal fires will also .banish frost, but they give much mJor© trouble, and they are slower in raising the temperature. The up-to-date orchardist' in the West lays .a row of "oil pots" between the rows of his trees, and instals a frost i alarm. This alarm is a most ingenious contrivance. A thermometer is placed in or near the orchard, with a platinum wire raised into the tube at what is considered the danger point, and connected., with an electric bell above the orehardiist's bed. When the mercury sinks below the wire, the electric .current is broken, and the bell rings. The orchardist jumps out of bed, and runs to his orchard, and he and his men race down the lines of heaters, lighting them, with torches. Probably, however, he has had more warning, and has not gone to bed. If he had ■vdsited'v the Post Office during the day he has seen, prominently displayed, the advice of the State meteorologist to look out for frost! Soon the temperature outside the orchard is 28, but inside it is 37, and night-long vigilance keeps it above the danger point. Many proofs are given of the great value of this method. Fruit crops worth from £SO to £l5O an acre are saved at a cost of 30s to £2 per acre, and the frost rarely has to be fought more than, once or twice in a season. At one plaice in Colorado the temperature fell to 15d©g. below freezing point

on the last night of April. The heated orchards gave a splendid crop, but not a box of apples was obtained from the acres that ihad bean left alone as a test. An orchard of 240 acres in a deep Missouri valley had suffered year after year; indeed, the M'hole valley was in a bad way, owing to the regular destruction of fruit crops by frost. Two men bought this orchard, put in 5000 heaters, fought four nights of frost, and harvested 15,000 barrels of apples, valued at £9OOO.