Shelter. 3 



by a fence ten or twelve feet high. On the north, beside the fence there 

 was a long building ; and, just in front of that, the pears-trees seemed to do 

 the best. The fruit was abundant, large, and fair. Now, we have always 

 believed that this favorable condition of things was the result of shelter. 

 Every one knows how much grape-vines are benefited by the protection they 

 receive in cities : even the Black Hamburg will ripen in the open air in 

 Boston, and the Rebecca as far east as Bangor, if they only enjoy the pro- 

 tection that city walls afford them. The White Doyenne or St. Michael 

 Pear, which cannot be grown in the open orchard in certain parts of the 

 countr}', will nevertheless, when grown among the buildings in the city, 

 produce fair and perfect fruit. We have known the V;in Mons, Leon le 

 Clerc, and other pears that crack, operate in the same way. Now, what is 

 it but shelter or protection that makes the difference ? The benefits of 

 shelter have been fully demonstrated in our own vineyard the past winter. 

 On a side-hill facing south, and well protected on the north and east by 

 a hill covered with trees both evergreen and deciduous, the vines were en- 

 tirely uninjured by the winter, and started earlier and more vigorously than 

 any others on our place. There was no apparent reason, except that they 

 were sheltered from the rigors of winter. This fact was patent to all who 

 saw the vines. On the other side of the same hill, where exposed to the full 

 sweep of the winds for a long distance, almost every grape-vine was killed 

 to the ground ; and some large pear-trees shared the same fate, while oth- 

 ers were badly and perhaps permanently injured. What made the differ- 

 ence but want of shelter ? Both had received the same treatment during 

 the previous summer, and the soil on each side of the hill is very similar. 



The rhododendron is a plant that will illustrate the advantages of protec- 

 tion. When found growing in the forest, under the shade of the pine and 

 other evergreen trees, it rarely fails to bloom in great profusion ; but re- 

 move it to an open and exposed location, and it will soon be utterly de- 

 stroyed by the winter. It does not seem to be so much the extreme cold 

 as the changes and the severe winds that do the injury to which we have 

 referred. Every man who has been exposed to biting winds in winter on 

 the bleak hills of New England, or the treeless, shelterless prairies of the 

 West, can testify to the satisfaction with which he has crept up to the lee- 

 ward side of some building, or followed possibly in the rear of a load 



