344 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Mr. Tudor found that trees, even those of a hardy character, would not grow, 

 or scarcely live, swept and twisted by the winds and coated by the salt spray, 

 and he set himself at work to ameliorate the climate. Cold winds surcharged 

 with acrid salts must be kept out, while warm sunshine and gentle airs must 

 be admitted ; and he has so far changed the climate of the locality as to enable 

 him to rear tender plants and to produce fruits scarcely attainable in sheltered 

 spots in the interior. Around one garden he has erected fences from ten to 

 twenty feet high of common laths nailed to strong cross pieces, leaving interstices 

 about two inches Avide between them. Around another garden the fence is of 

 brick, the lower five or six feet being built close and the upper portion full of 

 holes about two inches square. These fences so break and sift the winds as to 

 deprive them of all power of either straining the trees or conveying the salt 

 spray to their foliage. The temperature is so changed that several degrees of 

 difference may be noticed between the inside and outside of the enclosure. On 

 a cold day there is a genial, soft atmosphere in the garden, while out of it 

 November winds may howl along the coast with icy breath. With this change 

 of temperature Mr. Tudor has succeeded in clothing this part of the promontory 

 with rich varieties of plants. I here saw pear trees only four years from the 

 transplanting loaded with fruit. The Northern Spy fruited in perfection ; also 

 the new, tender raspberries, and nearly all the fruits found in our best gardens. 

 Mr. Tudor has set ten thousand trees among the rocks on the handful of earth 

 he could come at where he desired to plant, so that now the currents of wind 

 being broken, and evaporation in a measure retarded, vegetation will spring up 

 spontaneously, and trees of a less hai'dy character than those commenced with 

 will succeed. 



His example exerts a wide influence. Other cultivators take the hint from 

 his operations, and by means of fences and shrubbery are enabled to accomplish 

 what would otherwise be impossible. 



I have seen on Cape Ann a granite wall fifteen feet high, erected by the 

 owner of a quany, for the purpose of protecting his garden from the east winds. 



The market gardeners in Belmont, West Cambridge, and other towns in the 

 vicinity of Boston, erect tight board fences on the northern and eastern sides 

 of their grounds, and against these they make long ranges of hot-beds covered 

 with glass or with straw matting. Here with the aid of horse manure from the 

 city stables, they raise lettuce, radishes, early cabbages, turnips, beets, 

 cucumbers, and tomatoes, and large numbers of these plants, which, at the 

 proper season, are either transplanted into their own fields or sold to gentlemen 

 in the vicinity. Indeed quite a profitable trade has recently sprung up between 

 the gardeners and people from the country, who resort to them for early plants 

 for their own gardens. Proofs of the benefit of shelter to gardens meet us on 

 every hand. 



There are few good grapes that will ripen in New England in unsheltered 

 grounds, but protected by a wall or hedge many fine grapes will attain perfec- 

 tion. One of the finest nurseries within my knowledge is protected by a thick 

 belt of forest trees, and here the choicest pears, which will rarely pay for 

 cultivation in unsheltered places, yield their fruit in perfection. Shelter will 

 do more towards securing the early maturity of fruits, so that they may escape 

 autumnal frosts, than can be done by high culture and heavy manuring. 

 These, in grapes and pears, will produce a luxuriant growth of wood and large, 

 plump fruit ; but the wood is so filled with sap that the maturing of the fruit 

 is rather retarded than hastened. For ripening fruit the atmosphere needs to 

 be cultivated rather than the soil, and this can only be done by shelter, whiph 

 protects the fruits from searching winds and surrounds them with a warmer 

 and more uniform temperature. 



We formerly attempted to force early maturity by high culture, but ex- 

 perience has proved its futility. In climates where the season is long it will 



