388 ILLINOIS STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



Timber Belts. — How do these protect our fruit trees? That they 

 afford a measure of protection is certain. It is perfectly manifest in my 

 younger orchard, about twenty years old, where we have lost only two 

 trees, by the winter, out of over one hundred. This orchard is protected 

 by a White Willow hedge or belt on the west side, which is now, say, 

 thirty feet high and fifteen feet wide, unpruned and unbrowsed by stock. 

 Six rows in this orchard are south of the willows, and take the west wind 

 without any protection ; and out of these forty-two trees fourteen have 

 been killed by our two severe winters. We can not raise such a timber- 

 belt of white willow where cattle, horses and sheep have access ; they 

 will eat the trees as readily as grass. The Norway spruce might be bet- 

 ter, or some other evergreen. The willow grows rapidly on common 

 soil, but will not grow on gravel ridges. 



A few days since I visited a friend in Walworth county, Wisconsin. 

 He had a young orchard — principally Ben Davis, Fameuse, Willow Twig 

 and Wagener, situated on slightly rolling ground, and there was nothing 

 to obstruct the west wind for half a mile. The severe and long- 

 continued cold of last winter killed his trees almost entirely in his west 

 rows. One bearing Early Richmond tree and about forty apple trees, 

 from four to seven summers' growth, were killed on the west side — few or 

 none on the east side. 



This friend thinks if he had a good timber-belt on the west side of 

 his orchard, his trees would have been saved. 



Sun-Scalds. — All of us have seen apple trees with dead patches of 

 bark on the bodies, generally on the southwest side, sometimes on the 

 south, and rarely on the east sides, though I have never seen it on the 

 north side. 



Trees thus injured lean to the northeast, with bare bodies without 

 limbs to protect them from the sun. This shows us the importance of 

 keeping our trees erect, or leaning slightly to the southwest ; and here 

 comes in the value of low heads, shielding the bodies from the sun, both 

 in summer and winter. 



Some eminent horticulturists think the damage is done by the sun 

 during the winter. 



We like much the practice of J. T. Hawes, of Dane county, Wis- 

 consin, who protects his young apple trees from sun, mice, rabbits and 

 sleet, by narrow board boxes, high enough to cover the bodies. He uses 

 boot and shoe boxes, split and cut to suit, nailing three corners, and 

 springing the box around the tree through the loose one. If then a stake 

 were driven inside and the boxes nailed lightly to it, it would prevent 

 the box leaning against the tree. Fence boards might be used, cut to 

 the length of the body of the tree, and would pay well. This protection 

 from the sun is of especial importance in stock-grafting the bodies of 

 young trees, six to eight years old, when the whole top is taken off three 

 to five feet high. 



A mechanic, living in Richmond, Illinois, purchased about three 

 acres of land in the north part of the village. About six years ago, he 

 purchased nineteen seedling apple trees, which he planted on one side of 



