Oranges, Soot, and Science: The Development of Frost Protection in California

Abstract

Perhaps nothing about the state of California has attracted so much favorable comment over a long period of time as the climate. A delight to health seekers and vacationers, the predominantly mild weather found in much of California has made possible the commercial cultivation of a number of specialty crops whose fruit and blossoms are susceptible to damage from below-freezing temperatures. Of course, California has no monopoly on either vulnerable, highvalue crops or on efforts to protect them from falling temperatures, but growers in the Golden State have taken such a lead in the development of frost-protection systems that the history of that branch of agricultural technology can be satisfactorily viewed from a California perspective.' In the long battle against frost the individual grower or entrepreneur has been the primary innovative force, while public agencies and cooperative organizations have generally played an important