THE WAYS OF THE WIND 3 



and woof, to be windbreaks, also the shrubs of tough, 

 twisted fibre and stubborn thorns lying close to the 

 earth for windbuffers. 



Therefore, before the planting of rose or hardy herbs, 

 bulbs or tenderer flowers, go out, compass in hand, face 

 the four quarters of heaven, and, considering well, set 

 your windbreaks of sweeping hemlocks, pines, spruces, 

 not in fortress-like walls barring all the horizon, but in 

 alternate groups that flank, without appearing to do so 

 heavily, the north and northwest. Even a barberry 

 hedge on two sides of a garden, wedge point to north, 

 like the wild-goose squadrons of springtime, will 

 make that spot an oasis in the winter valley of 

 death. 



A wise gardener it is who thinks of the winter in 

 springtime and plants for it as surely as he thinks of 

 spring in the winter season and longs for it ! If, in the 

 many ways by which the affairs of daily life are re- 

 enforced, the saying is true that " forethought is coin in 

 the pocket, quiet in the brain, and content in the heart," 

 doubly does it apply to the pleasures of living, of which 

 the outdoor life of working side by side with nature, 

 called gardening, is one of the chief. When a garden is 

 inherited, the traditions of the soil or reverence for those 

 who planned and toiled in it may make one blind to 



