6 TREES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 



stand. The new settlers are glad to shelter their habitations 

 under the lea of the spurs of forest which stretch like promon- 

 tories into the prairie lands. A forest near the coast, in any 

 part of New England, protects those farther inland from the 

 chilling east winds; and, while such winds prevail, a person 

 passing towards the sea, experiences a marked change of tem- 

 perature, upon crossing the last wood and especially the last 

 wood-covered hill. One who would have his house screened 

 from the northerly winds, must take care to have behind it a hill 

 crowned with trees, or at least to have a wood stretching from 

 the northwest to the northeast. A garden surrounded by tall 

 trees admits the cultivation, even in our severe climate, of plants 

 almost tropical. 



Forests not only protect from winds ; they must prevent their 

 formation. The air resting over a broken surface cannot be 

 rapidly heated to a uniformly high temperature, so as to rise 

 upwards in great masses and create a violent wind.* 



4. As adding to the beauty of a country, the forests are of 

 the utmost importance. A country destitute of them cannot 

 be in the highest degree beautiful. If the green hills of Berk- 



* A writer in the 6th volume of the N. E. Farmer, says, "It is not merely in 

 forests, nor as supplying fire wood and timber thai trees are valuable. < Consid- 

 ered agriculturally,' says an English writer, 'the advantages to be derived from 

 subdividing extensive tracts of country by plantations are evidently great, whether 

 considered in the light of affording immediate shelter to the lands, or in that of 

 improving the local climate.' The fact that the climate may be thus improved, 

 has, in very many instances, been sufficiently established. It is indeed astonish- 

 ing how much better cattle thrive in fields even but moderately sheltered, than they 

 do in an open, exposed country. In the breeding of cattle, a sheltered farm, or a 

 sheltered corner in a farm, is a thing much prized ; and in instances where fields 

 are taken by the season for the purpose of fattening cattle, those most sheltered 

 never fail to bring the highest rents. . . . Dr. Deane has observed, 'pasture lands 

 should be well fenced, in small lots, . . . and these lots should be bordered at 

 least, with rows of trees. It is best that trees of some kind or other should be 

 growing scattered in every point of a pasture, so that cattle may never have far to 

 go, in a hot hour, to obtain a comfortable shade." 



" Small lots, thus sheltered, are not left bare of snow so early in the spring as 

 larger ones lying bare ; since fences and trees cause more of it to remain on the 

 ground. The cold winds in March and April hurt the grass much when the 

 ground is bare ; and the winds in winter will not suffer snow to lie deep in land 

 that is too open to the rake of winds and storms." — JV. -E. F., VI., 350. 



