Twro] SELECTING A HOME 



must become, if possible, the owner of such a belt 

 of timber, or it will be cut down after you have 

 planted yourself under its shelter. This is a matter 

 of far more importance than appears on a pleasant 

 summer day. Temperature often varies two or 

 three degrees within an eighth of a mile. While it 

 is true that you must master conditions wherever 

 you go, you do not need to make the life-struggle 

 more serious by an ill-chosen location. Perhaps 

 you do not know, yet it is true that climate so varies 

 that fruit-growing, which is favorably carried on 

 under the shelter of a range of hills, is barely possi- 

 ble in the valley, and impossible at the top of the 

 range. The best position, as a rule, faces the south- 

 east — with the colder winds broken by the hills 

 above. Such an exposure also takes the morning 

 sunshine, which is especially conducive to plant- 

 health and growth. But it is not your orchard that 

 you must alone provide for; you are going to grow 

 children, and these will need the best possible nat- 

 ural conditions for health and sweetness. Condi- 

 tions that will grow a first-rate Northern Spy apple 

 are none too good for growing red-cheeked and 

 warm-hearted children. A southeast exposure 

 gathers the heat all day, and is prepared to resist 



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