In 1911, a publication called the Florida Review offered the state's agriculturalists information on the techniques for dealing with the prospect of frost:

Knowledge is a most excellent thing under all circumstances, but certainly there is no place in the world where scientific agriculture is more important than right here in Florida. As illustrating how the gardener and orchadist may make use of scientific apparatus, there is now on the market a self registering thermometer with electrical attachment, by means of which a bell can be rung by his bedside so as to awaken him when the temperature in the free air sinks below say 40 degrees. Of course, you understand that when the temperature of the free air is 40 to 42, there may be a light frost on your plants, which indicates that the leaves of the plants are such good radiators of heat that their temperature has fallen to 32. In Southern Florida, where nothing more severe than a light frost is experienced; when the bell rings all that is necessary is to arise and light your smudge boxes or small smudge fires which you have in readiness, or start your pump and set sprayers going, and your crop is saved. In the northern part of the state, where greater cold is sometimes experienced, it is advisable to be prepared with oil-pots, coal baskets or wood fires, which not only make a smudge but also furnish heat.

Quotation found in Floripedia: Agricultural Notes