FIGHTING FROST.

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 15 August 1929, Page 8

FIGHTING FROST.

CALIFORNIAN METHOD. An American paper says the problem of converting vvhat had appeared: to be 00,000,Q00 dollars (about £10,400,000) loss into gain -is at -present facing fruit growers in California ; and there are good prospects that this feat will be accomplished. Early on April 0. central California experienced the last and most severe of a series of frosts ,sueh as had not, been known there for many years. In the Sacramento Va,lley many orchnrdists suffered an almost complete loss, of their fruit crops.

j At first it was estimated that the crop loss alone would amount to 50,000,000 dollars. But it was not long before more optimistic notes began to be sounded from the agricultural sections. While some growers found their losses had been heavier than at lirst anticipated', others, it was discovered, had used their ingenuity and saved all or most of their fruit. Smudge piots were liumed out, and recent improvements in these instruments, whereby they are enabled' to give more heat and less smoke, promise to make this form of frost protection more widespread. Some growers, hy flooding their orchards at the crucial moment, sent up a mist that warmed the frigid air. Other growers used overhead irrigation. sending down warm rains. And wome small ranchers were even known to get out the garden hose and gently relax the frozen leaves- of their pear and plum and apricot trees with a warm spray until the sun rose and completed the work. This experience is expected to extend the use of such methods. Officials of the State agricultural department point out that overhead irrigation is a. little more costly than the ground type, but it acts like natural rain, protecting against frost and washing off summer pests. The fact that sturdy trees kept in better con-

| ditiou than others is also counted upon to stimulate careful care- of orchards. As many orchardifits saved, a guodlv portion of their crop, and as the fruit remaining; 'promised to mature bigger a I"!' lie ft cr .if. was scon Mi-ait a “qualityl market” might lie expected. For several years over-production has been the burden of the California fruit grower. As it is. the aggregate wealth coming into the- State may prove as great, if not greater, than that of last year.