f J SK5 8HELTEE. Iw* 



left some tliinofs out of account, and that many of tlic j)k'asiire.s lie had anticipated 

 W'^ro more easily imajjined than realized. It was a Iicatitiful liill, to be sure, embracing 

 in its view a large and populous city, several miles of a beautiful river, cascades, a 

 distant lake, and some fifty miles or more of the most fertile and highly cultivated 

 vallies in America. But the house stood uj)on its puak, anil the winds from every 

 point of the compass beat against it, as the waves do upon a solitary rock in the 

 ocean ; uo shelter was there on any side. It was, therefore, not long before the 

 novelty of the scene wore off, and the charm was broken. After battling the storm 

 fur a year or two, the gentleman sold out, and returned to town thoroughly cured of 

 the passion for a suburban residence. 



Now, all this place wanted was shelter, which, under some men's management, 

 would have soon sprung up ; but this was not thought of. If one of the finst steps 

 had been to plant thick belts of rapid growing trees around the exposed sides, the 

 place would, in a few years, have become habitable ; and instead of being, as it now 

 is, dreaded by all, it would have been one of the most delightful places in the country. 



But our purpose at present is particularly to call attention to the necessity of pro- 

 viding shelter to gardens, orchards, and grounds of every description, when valuable 

 crops are to be grown. We believe that every experienced and observing cultivator 

 will agree with us in saying that this is a matter of the first importance. Our own 

 conviction is, that, however it may have been heretofore, it will be just as necessary 

 in future to provide shelter as it will be to have a good soil and give it proper culti- 

 vation. Every season's experience, and the last most of all, strengthens this conviction 

 more and more. The time was when our hill tojis were crowned with forests that 

 stood like bulwarks to break the fury of the storm and protect our fields and gardens 

 from its destroying influence ; but these bulwarks are, in a great measure, demolished. 

 The necessities of some, and the short-sightedness of others, have "cleared" the hills, 

 and now the winds sweep over them with unresisted violence. People just begin to 

 realize what they have done, and regret it when too late. " Our climate is wonder- 

 fully changed," they say; "formerly we had no such cold, blighting winds as we now 

 have — no such sudden and violent changes of weather; our climate is much less 

 comfortable, and cultivation, of many things, much more difficult than it used to be." 

 The farmer complains that his winter crops are more uncertain than formerly. When 

 the snow falls, instead of aftbrding protection to the surface of the ground, as it 

 does in sheltered places, it is drifted before the wind, and piled up in heaps that melt 

 only before an April sun. We see not only the snow blown off exposed fields, but 

 the dried earth is actually drifted like the sands of an Arabian desert — the very plants 

 OTowinof in it scattered to the winds. See the destructive influence of the cold winds 

 of winter and early spring upon the tender trees of our orchards, gardens, and nur- 

 series ! Cultivators in the prairie regions of Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, &c., tell us 

 that they have nothing to dread so much as the cold winds of the winter months ; 

 and if they could only protect themselves against these, their country would be a 

 comparative paradise. 



In Western New York these cold winter winds are severely felt, too, and are 



