538 TjiAXSACTIOyS OF THE AMERICAN IXSTITUTE. 



cause, aside from tlie mere want of manure, for the failure of our 

 apple trees. 



2, Change of Climate. 



Others say that our apple trees fail doing well because our climate 

 is undergoing changes that are unfavorable to the vigor and produc- 

 tiveness of the apple tree. The orchards of our first settlers were 

 everywhere, and for many years, surrounded with extensive forests 

 and woodlands, as well as swamp and marshy grounds, that kept the 

 air around the apple trees moist, and also warded off the cold and 

 chilly winds of autumn, winter, and spring, that would otherwise 

 have blown upon and injured the apple trees, and their blossoms, and 

 young tender fruit, and so made the apple crop sure, large, and fine. 

 But the draining of these swamps and marshes has dried up this source 

 of moisture in the air, and the cutting down of our extensive forests 

 and woods have left our apple orchards, all over our country, 

 continually exposed to the destructive frosty winds of autumn, 

 winter, and spring, and to the scorching and withering rays 

 of our hot summer's sun, and our increasingly hot atmos- 

 pheric airs, generally destitute of moisture; and the consequences 

 upon our apple trees, and their crops have thus been, and now are, 

 just what we might reasonably expect from such a change of air and 

 climate. And our only way of avoiding this evil, tliis increasing evil, 

 will be to surround our orchards with belts of such e^^ergreen and 

 deciduous trees as will ward oif these cold winds, and increase the 

 moisture of the air around our trees, and make the air there of warmer 

 and more steady and uniform temperature than it now is. 



3. Insect Ravages. 

 Others say that the failures of our apple trees and apple crops arises 

 mainly from the great increase of destructive insects and their ravages, 

 that injure the trees and make their fruit small, wormy, rotten and 

 worthless. And this is evidently true to some extent. And our 

 only sure remedy against this part of the evil is for us all everywhere 

 to protect and save the lives, and greatly increase the number, of our 

 insect-eating birds that will devour the various insects that commit 

 these ravages on our fruit trees and their fruit. We must increase 

 the number of our insectivorous birds, if we want to increase our sup- 

 plies of fruit, and secure that fruit for our own use. And hence the 

 man or boy that sportingly, or carelessly, kills an insectivorous bird, 



