192 THE CANADIAN IIORTICULTDEIST. 



WHERI'] TflEY SHOULD BE I'LANTED.- 



The object of screens is manifold. The 6rsb object of a householder 

 should doubtless be to render the residence, its yards and outbuildings and 

 their occupants comfortable. It is by no m.eang uncommon to see a fine 

 residence, with suitable outbuildings, standing exposed to .the -full force of 

 westerly and northerly winds,' even where the farm appointments otherwise 

 unmistakably indicate an owner in easy circumstances, and abundantly 

 able to supply the needed protection. On such a place they should, beyond 

 doubt, be planted so as to shelter the house and lawns and the yards, 

 occupied by the farm stock, not merely as a matter of comfort to man and 

 animals, but also as an economical investment to save the stock of fuel, 

 and to economize the feed consumed by stock in the process of generating 

 animal heat. The object subserved, we would next, if still needful, plant 

 a low soreen (but one that will grow to be ten or twelve feet high) along 

 the exposed side or sides of the kitchen garden, and in so doing provide the 

 needful shelter for early vegetables, as well as a nook for the lo:-ation of a 

 hut- bed and cold frames. Having provided for these needs, attention may 

 next be given to the screening of the orchards from westerly or northerly 

 winds. We are not unaware that some intelligent orchardists doubt the 

 advantage of such protection, but we fancy that after a man shall have lost, 

 or neai-ly lost, for year after year, the one fourth or one-half of his crop of 

 fruit from the effect of high winds, just before the picking season, a slight, 

 effort of the imagination might convince him that less wind and more fruit 

 might have been for his advantage. We recollect that at the recent meet- 

 ing of the State Pomological Society at Hillsdale, Mr. Joseph Lannin, of 

 South Haven, took issue with our expressed views on this subject by say- 

 in<^ he did not think a screen would be of any advantage to his orchards. 

 In this he may be correct, since no screen on either the west or north sides, 

 thereof could at least for naany years sbelter the trees to any great extent, 

 if planted on the border of the orchard, for the reason that such borders 

 are on lower ground; so that screens must be gxown to a very considerable 

 heio-ht before they become effective. We know that many men here are so 

 carried awa}* with the idea that the lake is our protection that they prefer 

 a full exposure to lake breezes. The two severe winters of the last decade, 

 however, gave at least some or these gentlemen the idea that it may even 

 be possible to have too much of a good thing. Some of them lost peach 

 trees by the hundred, clearly in consequence of full westerly and northerly 

 exposure with long continued cold. In fact, we have in mind a peach 

 orchard directly upon the bluff to which the orchard committee of 1873. 

 awarded a first premium, but which during the next winter was killed 

 outright by the severe and long continued cold, with the exception of a few 

 of the trees standing upon the east bluff inclined from the lake. A neigh- 

 boring orchard similarly situated, but sheltered from the winds by a belt, 

 of trees, came through the same winter uninjured. But there are doubtless, 

 reasons why a screen for the protection of an orchard, especially if it 

 contains cherries, peaches or even pears, should be open enough to impede 

 but not fully arrest the circulation of the air. 



— T. T. Lyon, in Mkliicjan FarrmT. 



