THE FAILURE OF ORCHARDS, AND ITS REMEDY. 207 



protection from winter winds and cold storms. Hence we 

 do not advocate universal protection. But, at a distance 

 from the ocean, in most localities, apple-orchards have suf- 

 fered extremely often fatally for want of the protection 

 which a belt of timber will afford. 



Lewis Ellsworth, who is acknowledged to be reliable au- 

 thority at the West, writes that the loss in fruit-trees in 

 Illinois, within the last three years, is millions of dollars, 

 which is attributed to, the cold winters and dry summers. 

 But he asserts that, to a great extent, this result has arisen 

 from their standing unprotected in a soil underlaid with 

 a retentive clayey-loam subsoil, which characterizes most 

 of the prairie lands. He has adopted the practice of ridg- 

 ing his land by repeated ploughings, commencing at the 

 same ridges, and ending at the same dead furrows. Where 

 nursery-trees were formerly thrown out by freezing, since 

 ridging, they stand throughout the winter without injury, 

 and make a better growth in summer. He recommends 

 the ridging system for all orchards, each row of trees being 

 placed on the centre of the ridge. 



We have no doubt that the thorough draining of such 

 ground would lessen the effects of severe winters on fruit- 

 trees in other regions as well as at the West. 



Belts of Timber around Fruit-orchards. We will sup- 

 pose, for example, that an orchard is to be planted on a 

 broad prairie, where the cold winds of a North-western 

 winter can rake the surface of the earth for twenty to thir- 

 ty miles ; and suppose, farther, that a few neighbors are in 

 possession each of fifty acres of laud. Let them all co-ope- 

 rate in establishing belts of forest-trees as effectual wind- 

 breakers, around every fifty-acre plot. By working in con- 

 cert, as joint owners of land build line fences, heavy belts 

 can be established in a few years. 



The first step should be to break up a strip of ground 



