392 STATi. POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



the thennomcter. All animals are constantly, during life, generating heat, 

 which ordinarily is passing off into the surrounding air. A\'inds dissipate this 

 heat, ^vhich causes a cooling sensation to the animal. The thermometer, not 

 generating heat like the animal, the effect of winds upon it depends entirely 

 upon whether they bring warmer or cooler air than that which is normal to the 

 locality. Trees in winter evidently generate heat, but in an infinitely less de- 

 gree in proportion to their bulk tlian warm-blooded animals. Still large tracts 

 of forests liave the effect of modifying the rigors of winter to a great degreCj 

 and tiie fact tiiat in small openings in a new, densely-timbered country, peaches 

 and other tender fruits are a success until the countrv is more generally cleared 

 up, and then fail entirely, has led many to believe in belts of trees as a protec- 

 tion against frost; a very natural conclusion, but one that does not stand the 

 test of experience, except where they form a canopy and prevent the nocturnal 

 escape of heat. Cases are not wanting, on this lake shore, to illustrate the 

 position I have taken; one, which came under my personal notice, I will 

 relate. 



A nice Avarm basin of some two acres near the summit of the bluff that lines 

 the eastern shore of Lake Michigan, and but a few rods from the lake on its 

 west side, and from Lake Muskegon on its north, well protected on all sides with 

 liills and a dense growth of small timber, was put out to peacli trees. "Well, 

 they did not wait the cold winter, they were all dead before it, while each tree 

 put out near the water, and perhaps five feet above it, and at least 45 feet 

 (judging by the eye) below the valley above mentioned, lived and bore peaches 

 till tlio hard winter above referred to. In the latter case there was abundant 

 '''atmospheric drainage," in the otlier there was none. 



I am aware that abrupt elevation, like trees, fences, and buildings, have an 

 effect to elevate the temperature for a short distance in every direction, espe- 

 cially on the sunny side, and grapes will sometimes ripen in such places that 

 will not ripen a few feet further off, and I now look out upon the only vine I 

 have, unaffected in the winter mentioned (except where artificially i)rotected). 

 It stands on the northeast side of my two-story house, trained eight feet high, 

 and is fourteen feet from the building. Of thirty standard pears, some four 

 years })lanted, only three escaped that winter, two by being nearly covered in a 

 snow-drift, and one by standing a few feet to the south, but not in the shade, of 

 a thirty-foot oak. 



The conclusions I have arrived at from a special attention to tlie subject for 

 many years, are that forests moderate materially the winter climate in their 

 midst and vicinity, to an extent corresponding with their area ; that all trees and 

 other obstructions to the wind prevent, in a measure, the escape of the natural 

 heat from animals, and protect in a measure all plants and fruits from mechan- 

 ical injury ; that solitary trees and belts have a climatic effect for only a few 

 feet, and that, so far as they obstruct the free circulation of air, they favor 

 frost, that special bane of all tender fruits ; but at the same time they often have 

 the effect of preventing the blowing off of snow, which is a great ]n'otection to 

 fruit trees, slirubs, and vines. C. W. Garfield, Secretary of the State Pomo- 

 logical Society, says in an essay on the apple orchard, ''High ground has great 

 advantages, because experience has taught that atmosjiheric drainage is an im- 

 portant matter as well as drainage of the lands. Timber belts jjlanted on the 

 side of the cold winds, are a ])rotection when they are not too thick so as to 

 keep the air from moving, in vdiicli case danger may lie apprehended from late 

 frosts in the spring." He then speaks of the advantage of a snow covering. 



Muskegon, Michigan. S. B. Peck. 



