Late spring frosts cause immense losses of fruit in Iowa and help to discourage growers until many of them neglect, destroy or dispose of their orchards.

For that reason the Iowa Agricultural Experiment station is seeking to determine the value and efficiency of some of the orchard heating devices now on the market. During the season of 1911 tests were conducted in three different orchards and in addition several individual growers in various sections of the state also tried out heating as a means of frost protection. While the work is not complete and must be extended through other seasons, these first tests demonstrated these facts:

That the temperature in an orchard can be raised several degrees in time of frost.

That orchard heating as a method of insurance against frost is practicable under Iowa conditions during most seasons.