WINTER MEETING, 1877. 45 



ready to fill, cannot be too carefully considered by the farmer especially, or 

 neglected without great loss, both as to matters of taste and material advantage. 



Some ten years ago the writer purchased of a nurseryman at ]Jetroit 1,000 

 little white cedars, the arbor vita', one of the mont graceful of our native 

 evergreens, whether for single trees, or groups or hedges. The little plants 

 "were one year old from the seed, about four to six inches high, and cost one 

 and one-half cents each, or ^Ib per thousand. Besides planting many of these 

 in groups or singly, about the liouse and grounds, a sullicient number were used 

 to make a hedge or screen on tlie westerly and northerly side of a large garden, 

 which had been very much exposed to the sweep of blasting winds, sometimes 

 to the destruction of nearly all the early plants it contained. 



These cedars, set out some two or three feet ajiart, all grew luxuriantly, and 

 they now form a living wall about twelve feet high, as impervious to the w^inds 

 as a brick or stone wall of equal height, affording a most complete protection 

 for the garden, and more than doubling its value for the purposes of its use. 

 Delicate plants that one blast of cold wind on a May morning would chill and. 

 destroy, now, no matter how bleak the gusty day, seem to nestle in the warm 

 sunshine unconscious of harm. This is simply mentioned for illustration ; we 

 shall have occasion to refer to this kind of shelter again. 



This is a cheaply obtained refuge that one may profit b}", and an inexpensive 

 ornamention in which one may indulge. 



AVhen rough wintry tempests seem to shake the earth, when yon hear them 

 howl about your window panes, driving drear December rains clear through 

 them, when your fires burn briskly but do not seem to warm your house, then 

 may you reflect that had you a few years before planted your grounds thickly 

 with a variety of evergreens in the direction whence come the prevailing 

 storms, the trees would now overtop your dwelling and alford you a hiding 

 place from the wind. 



In this too I have had experience. More than twenty ears ago my residence 

 was on an elevated plot of ground, that seemed to be in the special pathway of 

 all the most enterprising winds as they came careering across the lakes. Some- 

 times a mile or two of fence on the farm would go down in a single night, and 

 on one occasion especially, a neighbor's house built of brick had its whole 

 western gable end blown in, making its way without ceremony through inter- 

 vening floors to the basement. 



Some years before, I had planted a score or two of evergreens in the most 

 exposed direction. The little trees sprang up adding to their arms and strength 

 year by year, until they were able to defy and resist the blasts, causing them 

 to divide their columns or move on higher levels. 



The farmer cannot do better for his dwelling, for his stock-yards, for his 

 orchards and his crops than to provide a hiding place from the winds. A hid- 

 ing place from the wind is associated in scripture with the shadow of a great 

 rock in a weary land, to which I have referred. 



If to the northward and westward of each farm's barns and cattle yards, a belt 

 of evergreens were planted, they would in ten years form as complete a protec- 

 tion as a stone wall fifteen feet high, and be very much better in every way, 

 affording a hiding jilace from the winds, which mild-eyed and sweet-breathed 

 cows and oxen, and gentle slieep would regard as a special providence, and for 

 which they would repay their owners many fold. 



Belts of evergreens planted on the exposed sides of orchards afford such a 



