3H AUTUMN AND WINTER 



protection ; those to the west no bigger than bushes ; and 

 behind them the sheltered ranks gradually and regularly 

 slope upwards as if preparing to receive cavalry. 



All wind is an enemy to the growth of trees and bushes. 

 It is indeed the worst of all enemies, as few realise except 

 the real gardeners. The winds are more cruel than frosts 

 to young growth. They tear the cells, rock the trunk so 

 that the roots oscillate and the rootlets lose that close and 

 intimate touch with the soil on which vigour of growth 

 depends. The wind-screen is the first necessity of every 

 garden if fruit is to be grown, as even Government depart- 

 ments understand where their officials deal with areas on the 

 west coast. Often in vain has the endeavour been made to 

 grow forest trees about the hills on the west coast of Ireland. 

 The west wind will not now permit it, although in the bogs 

 of this district lies abundant proof that years ago the trees 

 conquered the wind. When he sees recovered from the 

 black ooze great trunks of oak, parts of a vanished forest of 

 flourishing wood, the heart of every afforester burns to 

 restore the extinct scenery. So his effort is now to establish 

 screens of spruce, as the nurseryman grows hedges of beech 

 and hornbeam and alder, that behind the acclivity of these 

 ranks planed by the west wind the forest may re-arise over 

 the barren slopes. That patriarchal board, under whose 

 governance is placed all that part of Ireland which is subject 

 to the first brunt of the west wind, provides the little 

 farmers with ' screen ' trees as well as fruit-trees. But 

 those who most feel the west wind understand it least, and 

 great is the ridicule this very necessary defence arouses 

 in the minds of those who have regarded their coast as 

 barren and open to the west by the ordinance of insuperable 

 powers. 



Winds of the western seas are as kindly to grass as 



