Saratoga County, New York, USA
1893 - Frost Torches to Protect Vegetables.

The project adopted by the farmers of Saratoga County, New York, to protect their crops from damage by early frosts is worthy of imitation elsewhere. It seems that a Swedish farmer has talked of the use of "frost torches" in his native country, made of petroleum-soaked peat; but, as peat is not common in Saratoga County, the farmers employed their leisure time in the summer preparing pine stakes two inches in diameter and five feet long, then they laid in a stock of kerosene. A few evenings ago the thermometer dropped to thirty-eight degrees by 8 o'clock p. m. and the agriculturists began soaking their pine sticks. By midnight they had them in place, about fifty to the acre and blazing vigorously, the dense smoke preventing the chilling of the atmosphere. As the torches cost, but about one-half cent each, and as all the torch-illuminated farms escaped damage, while the others in the vicinity were probably depleted of two-thirds of their produce by frost, it is clear that the scheme is as economical as it is successful. - Newark News.

Maxton Scottish Chief
Maxton, North Carolina
November 22, 1893

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