78 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 



close growth and rich foliage. In other words, here 

 is a fruit that we would not select to any extent for 

 orchard-growing, and yet it is so good that it will be 

 welcomed when it affords us bushels, without any 

 further labor than that of planting a windbreak. 



A close row of dwarf apples is another device 

 for combining fruit and shelter. Some of the dwarfs 

 are delightfully compact and beautiful, whether 

 singly or in rows. They are useful, however, only 

 where you will be content with a windbreak ten feet 

 high. The Ben Davis is a good apple for this pur- 

 pose. Its branches droop, and in autumn bend 

 gracefully down with a load of crimson fruit. The 

 Astrakhan, not dwarfed, makes a splendid wind- 

 break, bearing quite as well as in an open orchard. 

 The Kirkland is extremely fine for close-growing, 

 for dense foliage and for heavy cropping. The main 

 point to be looked after, in planting apple tree shel- 

 ters, is to select varieties with tough enduring wood. 

 Other varieties, like the Baldwin and the Pound 

 Sweet, will soon give way under the loads of fruit, 

 or in windstorms ; and present in the course of two 

 or three years after bearing, a mass of brushwood. 

 Such a windbreak must be trimmed of suckers as 

 carefully as the trees in an orchard. 



I have seen nature create some remarkably good 

 windbreaks with wild cherries and wild plums. The 

 latter particularly are good for their fruit as well as 

 their shelter. It is well for us to give nature the cue, 

 by starting along a required line a choice variety of 

 plums like the Lombard, from which suckers will 

 soon fill up all the space allowed. But here again 

 there will be constant need of the saw and pruning 



