9O HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 



get immense crops of grapes; and you will gain 

 greatly in the coolness of the barn and stables for 

 your cattle, and of the house for its occupants. While 

 the temperature is equalized and the soil of your 

 land is increased in humidity, you will find that there 

 is no gathering of dampness in your walls, provided 

 you have followed the directions I have given, that 

 is, of tying to wires instead of nailing to the boards. 



The windbreak and the brook this is the com- 

 bination that expresses the most of possible delight. 

 The farmer too seldom utilizes his water supply, 

 except to serve the barnyard and house. A wind- 

 break of willows arching over the brook is not only 

 useful, but one of the most beautiful pictures that 

 nature allows. You have only to procure good sticks 

 of willow and insert them in the moist banks. A 

 neighbor's willow grove serves as a grand entrance 

 way to his mansion, but for me, being on the east- 

 ward side of it, it serves as a windbreak. But if yon 

 have a brook you should at least utilize it in some 

 way as a summer retreat. It offers a place for a 

 wild grape or bittersweet shelter. Let it be as wild 

 as possible. But if the brook runs through the open 

 meadow or pasture, a double row of nut trees on the 

 banks will do far more than furnish a summer shelter 

 and a winter windbreak, it will make home doubly 

 joyful for the young folk. Almost all of the nut 

 trees, such as butternuts, hickory nuts, walnuts, 

 chestnuts, associate pleasantly with water. 



Of vines capable of use in interweaving wind- 

 breaks, the bittersweet is exceedingly fine. It is 

 perfectly hardy, very tenacious, and hangs in fes- 

 toons and loops of vine and berry. Combined with 



