12 The Canadian Horticulturist, 



that it is the condition of the west wind that makes the chmate. The mere 

 proximity of the Gulf Stream doesn't do it except mediately, and in a small degree; 

 for the Guif Stream is nearer to Nova Scotia than it is to Britian, and it does 

 not give Nova Scotia a mild climate. The west wind that srikes British Colum- 

 bia and Washington territory, is a moist wind ; and consquently, those coasts have 

 a mild climate, like England. In passing over the Coast Ranges and the Rocky 

 Mountains, the wind is robbed of its moisture, and becomes a dry wind and there- 

 fore a cold wind — as it sweeps easterly over the British Territories. By the 

 time it gets to Labrador, it is perfectly Arctic. Now, that wind pursues its 

 course over the Atlantic, and by the time it reaches the British Isles, it has again 

 become a moist wind, giving a moist, mild climate. It goes on crossing the Scan- 

 dinavian mountains and other moisture-robbing elevations, and by the time it 

 reaches Russia, it has again become a dry, cold wind, giving a dry cold climate. 

 On both continents, the west and east coasts respectively, show a vast difference 

 of temperature, at the same latitude — and for the above reason. 



This all points to the fact, that if we would be sheltered from the cold, we 

 must be sheltered from the west wind. Hence, in the country, the great value 

 of timber-belts for shelter ; for crops, for houses, and to prevent so much drifting 

 of the roads. I am glad Mr. Phipps has taken up the subject so vigorously. 

 It is no use wishing he had been in the vigor of his life forty years ago — ^when 

 his appeals would have done so much good, in hundreds of townships so now 

 denuded of their wood — for then people would not have listened to him; 

 Several farmers have expressed to me their regret that the township they live 

 in has been so completely stripped. " Not a sheltering belt of timber," said one 

 of them, " after you pass this one, for six miles up this line ! " " Well," said a 

 young girl in the sleigh, " I know that the strip of bush next our house, makes 

 us a great deal warmer; and we sometimes have apples hanging thick on our 

 trees, when other orchards are badly stripped with the winds." And though it 

 rpay be too late to save belts for shelter in many places, yet there are many 

 newer neighborhoods where the advice is still practicable. The narrowest 

 shelter-belt I ever saw, was in the County of Bruce, where a rather fancy fellow, 

 a bachelor, had run a double fence along his front, after he made his first clear- 

 ing. A space of twelve or sixteen feet was, when I saw it, growing up thickly 

 with all kinds of "soft stuff," making a beautiful front. In older clearings the 

 belt must needs be planted. 



Much of the survey of Ontario is " on a skew ; much to the disgrace of 

 the surveyers, and the Crown-land officials, who permitted it. West of Toronto> 

 are no fewer than twenty-five three-cornered townships ! In very many town- 

 ships, therefore, there is one end or side of the farm directly facing the 

 north-west. Let a strip, at least ten rods wide be left, all across that side of the 

 farm. And if the same is done for the south-west side, all the better. But 

 these anglies are^sometimes the man's fronf, and already cleared. In that case. 



