SHELTER. 



Year by year, the forests in our country are being stripped off, exposing 

 the hills and plains more and more to the fierce, sweeping winds of winter. 

 Springs and brooks have disappeared because of this wholesale destruction 

 of the forests ; and trees that were formerly hardy, and produced uniformly 

 good crops, now fail altogether. The peach, that formerly gave in the New- 

 England States a crop almost every year, now fails two years out of three : 

 while the tree is often badly injured by the winter. The same maybe said 

 of other fruit-trees, as well as of ornamental trees, shrubs, and grape-vines. 

 The winter that has just passed has been a peculiarly unfavorable one. 

 From all quarters, we hear complaints that hedges of arborvitae, hemlock, 

 and other plants, have been badly injured ; that standard evergreens which 

 had stood successfully for years have been nearly destroyed ; that grape- 

 vines in large numbers, and even of those varieties that have been consid- 

 ered perfectly hardy, have been killed ; that pear-trees in large numbers 

 have either been killed outright, or so injured that they will bear no fruit, 

 and require a year or two to recuperate. This is true of these things in 



