14 ORCHARD LANDS 



in the orchard site question which has sometimes been over- 

 worked and yet they are important. The one advantage of the 

 windbreak which is likely to appeal to any man who has to get 

 out in the orchard and do the actual work, is that it frequently 

 enables one to work with more comfort and consequently with 

 greater efficiency. The two operations in which this advantage 

 will be noticed most are in pruning and spraying. Most of our 

 pruning is done at a season of the year when the temperature is 

 likely to be too low for real comfort. If a man is pruning some 

 day in March in the northwest corner of an orchard on a western 

 or northwestern slope, when there is a gale from that direction, 

 he will very soon appreciate the value of anything that will get 

 him out of that wind. Perhaps he resorts to the barn, but that 

 does not get the orchard pruned. If he is lucky enough to have, 

 as a part of his orchard, a corner which slopes to the southeast 

 and which is, perhaps, also protected by a windbreak, he will see 

 the practical value of shelter from winds. The case is even 

 stronger when spraying is considered. In this operation one not 

 only has the physical discomfort to contend with (and physical 

 comfort or discomfort counts for a lot in getting any work done 

 properly), but he frequently finds it a practical impossibility to 

 get the spray where he wants it. It so happens that each of the 

 two orchards with which the writer has most to do, has many 

 different blocks on various slopes and with varying protections 

 from the winds. And times without number in both orchards 

 it has been possible to continue the work of spraying or pruning 

 because it was possible to get away from the wind which happened 

 to be blowing. A windbreak certainly pays in comfort and 

 efficiency. 



Kinds of Windbreak. If one is to have a windbreak it is very 

 desirable to choose a kind of tree for it which will harbor neither 

 fungous diseases nor insects which might attack the trees of the 

 orchard. For example, one would not want to have red cedar 

 trees in a windbreak for an apple orchard, because of the cedar 

 rust, a fungus which at one stage attacks the apple and at an- 

 other the red cedar. Oaks are generally to be avoided because 

 they harbor the tent caterpillar, and if one is unfortunate enough 



