NOVEMBER. 503 



What better evidence could we bring to fortify the opinion 

 of Mr. Daniel in regard to the importance of shelter and its 

 influence upon vegetation, that by "judicious management 

 the climate of our gardens is rendered congenial to the luxu- 

 rious productions of more favored regions." His remarks were 

 intended for a much higher latitude than our own, and for a 

 country where what we term a severe winter is unknown ; 

 but they are equally, if not more applicable to us. Our ex- 

 tremes of temperature, in spring and summer, our variable 

 rains at all seasons, and our icy coldness for several months, 

 render all the protection which he has so ably urged there, 

 doubly important here. 



On the broad and rolling prairies of the West, where, in 

 some places, there are already fine plantations of fruit trees, 

 and which, ere long, are destined to become the great fruit-pro- 

 ducing country of the States, how necessary it is that the 

 subject should receive attention ; already the young and 

 thriving orchards, which here and there alone relieve the 

 everlasting expanse of field and pasture, show decided efiects 

 of the loss of shelter. They lean, from the prevailing winds, 

 at a large angle, and their leaves and foliage bespeak the 

 want of protection from the devastating winds which sweep 

 with such violence across the treeless plains. Here, at least, 

 if not in better wooded portions of our country, shelter is of 

 the utmost importance, and we much doubt whether the 

 finer fruits can be successfully grown until something is done 

 to guard them from the bleakness of such exposed situa- 

 tions. 



But we need not go so far to put into practice what our 

 remarks will readily suggest. The hilly situations, as well 

 as the more exposed valleys of our own New England, have 

 ample need of the cultivator's aid. By means of plantations 

 of trees, whether of pines or larches or maple or beech, either 

 in belts or groups or in continuous lines, around an orchard, 

 or through it, or only on the windward side, the climate may 

 be essentially modified and changed ; and where doubts have 

 arisen as to the possibility of raising the finer fruits, they 

 will soon disappear before the light of intelligence and judg- 



