TKEES FOR SHADE AND SALUBEITY. 



THE advantages of trees for shade and protection may 

 seem less hypothetical than those we claim for them as 

 agents in nature's economy. Every man clearly perceives 

 that a mere belt of trees will protect his grounds from the 

 severe action of the winds, and shade them from the 

 scorching heat of the sun. This is a point that requires 

 no effort of reason to be understood ; it is plain to the 

 senses of every man who knows enough to walk on the 

 shady side of the road for comfort on a summer's day. 

 Even the flocks and herds have mind enough to perceive 

 that a tree will afford them shade, and that the leeward 

 side of a wood will protect them from the wind. But 

 the philosophy even of this branch of dendrology is not 

 fully understood. The extent of the advantages of trees 

 as a protection of the whole country from the force of 

 winds, and their effects upon agriculture and the amelio- 

 ration of the climate, according to the disposition that is 

 made of them, are hardly appreciated. 



It is a foolish canon of taste that substitutes harmony 

 in the disposition of objects in a landscape in the place of 

 that accidental formality in the rows of trees which have 

 grown up spontaneously by the fences in the old farms 

 of New England. This is said to be done by " improvers," 

 to avoid the stiff and checker-board appearance of square 

 fields belted with trees. It is true, that, if we were to look 

 down from an eminence, we should feel more of the sen- 

 sation of beauty from the view of a landscape in which 

 no such formalities are apparent. These rows make the 



