ADVANTAGES OF FOREST SHELTER. 55 



is equally fatal, where the morning sun would 

 smite the orange tree after a frost ; and have fail- 

 ed. They have failed to consider that these 

 trees that have survived so long and done so 

 well were planted in almost a dense forest, when 

 only a few forest trees had been cut to give place 

 to the cabin of the early settler ; or that they 

 were planted on the north or west side of the house 

 and thus never exposed to sudden thawing ; that 

 under some such protection of house or forest they 

 passed through the tender age of their early life 

 until their own boughs could furnish their trunks 

 the protection needed As to the questions of pro- 

 ductiveness and thrift under partial forest protection, 

 they are settled by the success of the few who in the 

 face of opposing theories have planted and succeed- 

 ed. Some of the most thrifty young groves in the 

 State, grown with less expense and equal to any of 

 their age in productiveness, have been grown under 

 the shelter of the pine or oak trees. Many groves 

 in a most flourishing condition, and supposed to 

 be well located with reference to protection from 

 frost, some far south and with considerable water 

 to the north-west, were seriously damaged in the 

 winter of 1876-7, and many trees beginning to 

 bear entirely killed ; but the writer has not heard 

 of a single instance of damage to trees in that win- 

 ter where they were protected by iorest trees stand- 

 ing to the south and east of the oranges. 



Even the lemon, in '76-7, much tenderer than 



