— I04 — 



REVIEW OF THE INFUENCE3 OF WINDBREAKS UPON FRUIT 



PLANTATIONS. 



The beiiefit.s derived from windbreaks are numerous, posi- 

 tive in character, and appear to possess sufficient importance to 

 warrant the strongest recommendations of horticulttiral writers. 

 Yet the injuries occasional!}^ sustained in consequence of shelter 

 belts ma}' be <seriotis, for it is a well attested fact that trees sometimes 

 suffer from cold in the immediate vicinity of a dense windbreak 

 when they escape injtiry in other places. This fact is easily ex- 

 plained, however. The influence of a windbreak upon the tem- 

 perattires of an adjacent plantation is governed by its position 

 with reference to prevailing or severe winds. Of itself, wind 

 probably exerts little or no influence tipon temperattire. It ac- 

 qttires the temperature of stirfaces over which it passes. If these 

 sttrfaces are colder than the giv^en area, cold winds are the restilt, 

 or if warmer, as a large body of water, the winds are warm. But 

 wind often causes great injury to plants because of its accelera- 

 tion of evaporation ; and winds which are no colder than the 

 given area, if comparatively dr}', may consequently do great dam- 

 age to fruit plantations. This is particularly true at certain times 

 dtiring the winter .sea.son. Land winds, being cold and dry, are 

 therefore apt to b^ dangeroti-;, while winds which traverse large 

 bodies of water, and are therefore coii:paratively warm and moist, 

 are usually in themselves protectors of tender plants. The follow- 

 ing table, giving the average temperatures of different winds at 

 New Haven, Connecticut, as compared with the mean tempera- 

 ture of that place, shows that tho.se winds which blow off the 

 Sound are much warmer than the land wind.s* : 



* Loomis' Meteorology, 88. 



