870 



THE i;i:nl:.si:i-: failmer. 



SHELTEE AND PROTEOHON OF ORCHARDS. 



The Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture 

 for 1862, just issued, contains an excellent article 

 on " Shelter and Protection of Orchards," in which 

 it is truly said that there is no eubject that so im- 

 peratively demands the attention of the fruit- 

 grower, or that presents a greater prospect of in- 

 creased remuneration in the products of the or- 

 chard and garden. 



In sheltered city gardens, as is well known, veg- 

 etation commences at an earlier period, and the 

 fruit ripens earlier and in greater perfection than in 

 exposed orchards and gardens. In Europe, and 

 especially in Great Britain, it is deemed e?sential to 

 protect gardens by the erection of walls, or at least 

 by hedges that will break the winds. 



It has become a standard remark of late that 

 many of our best fruit trees are more liable to dis- 

 ease, and their products more generally inferior, 

 both as to quantity and quality, than they formerly 

 were. 



Throairhout most of the older cultivated regions 

 of our country it is of rare occurrence to find an 

 orchard producing fruit not more or less imper- 

 fect. Apples are disfigured by warty and scab-like 

 blotches, and pears are cracked and worthless. 



In the culture of plants the great aim should un- 

 doubtedly be to properly balance the agencies of 

 growth. This is the great art of culture. 



The necessities of shelter are two-fold : to guard 

 against excessive aridity during summer, and severe 

 cold during winter. In other words, to mcKlify 

 the debilitating efiects of the injurious evaporation 

 produced by the extremes of heat and cold. 



For the successful adornment of lawns and pleas- 

 ure grounds, shelter is of the first importance. 

 One of the greatest obstacles to the growth of 

 choice evergreen trees and shrubs, especially during 

 the earlier stages of growth, is the aridity of our 

 summers. Broad-leaved evergreens, as tlie Maho- 

 nia, the Rhododendron, and otliers of similar char- 

 after, must be sheltered and iirotentcd if t!iey are 

 expected to grow into objects of beauty or interest. 



Protection during winter is not less an object of 

 utility. The degree of cold that plants will resist 

 uninjured is a question that can not be definitely 

 iiiiswered. A plant will occasionally be destroyed 

 by a degree of cold that it previously encountered 

 without apparent injury. 



Perfect maturity of growth is the great object 

 of all cultivation. This fact should always be up- 

 permost in the mind of the fruit-grower. Too much 

 importance can not be placed on the fundamental 

 principle, in fruit culture, that whatever tends to 

 render tissue moist, increases its susceptibility to 

 injury from cold; and whatever tends to reduce 

 humicity, and hasten the conversion of fluid-mat- 

 ter into woody fibre, increases its power of resist- 

 ing cold. But this is not the only result of thor- 

 ough maturity, for without it there can be no fruit. 

 The failures in fruit-culture arising from excessive 

 luxuriance, and stimulated growths that never 

 mature, are beyond calculation. The production 

 of mere wood-growth and the production of fruit 

 are antagonistic processes; and until this fact is 

 recognized and acted upon the highest excellence 

 of culture will not be attained. 



"With regard to the hardihood of plants and the 

 necessities of protection, there are individuals who 

 maintain that a fruit tree or plant to be valuable, 

 or fitted for general culture, must be able to take 

 care of itself. This can not be looked ujjon in any 

 other light than as a lame excuse for ijidolencHi and 

 neglect. 



Tlie writer advances the opinion that one great 

 reason wliy apples are so frequently blotched and 

 specked is tlie want of shelter from prevailing 

 winds. Tlie cracking of the pear and other attacks 

 of fungus he attributes to the same cause. The 

 Virgalieu pear cracks in exposed situations, yet 

 •' when grown in positions thoroughly protected it is 

 still produced in all its pristine beauty and excel- 

 lence," If true, this is indeed an important fact. 



It may be well to note, in connection with this 

 subject, that crops, both of apples and pears, are 

 sometimes lost by late frosts when tliey are in bloom. 

 It is an old custom, but now much neglected, to 

 have ready, in various suitable localities around an 

 orchard, several heaps of dried weeds or rubbish 

 of such description. Then should a slight frost oc- 

 cur when the trees are in bloom, set fire to these 

 heaps and endeavor to create as much smoke as 

 possible. Crops have repeatedly been saved by 

 this precaution. It is obvious that these smokitjg 

 lieaps should be placed on the windy side. 

 The curl of the leaf in peaches is attributed, and 



