76 The Principles of Fruit-growing. 
* * * * Tt has already been remarked that on the immediate 
coast the successful growth of fruit will sometimes be wholly 
dependent upon proper shelter from prevailing winds, and in 
regions farther from the ocean the topography may induce strong 
eurrants of air, which will ill affect trees and vines. In all such 
places the fruit-grower should plant wind-breaks, and will find 
himself well repaid for the ground they oceupy, by the success- 
ful production on the protected area. In the interior valleys 
there is also need of shelter from occasional high winds, which 
may visit the orchards either in summer or winter, and prove 
very destructive both to trees and fruit.—JVickson, California 
Fruits, 557. 
At Rivers [California] our orange groves are subject from Oc- 
tober to March to so-called “northers,” a wind blowing from due 
north, and usually for three days and nights continuously. When 
orchards are not protected from these winds, the injury some 
seasons amounts to fully 75 per cent of the whole crop. Have 
also found that when the shelter belt was planted on all sides, 
and that on the east side was tall enough to shelter the orchard 
from the first rays of the morning sun, the injury from frost was 
only perceptible in the branches first exposed, while in orchards 
without the shelter on the east side, the damage was quite marked 
throughout the orchard. The diagram (Fig. 3, page 75) illustrates 
my meaning and experience. The top of the tree at the right 
was nipped by frost, whilst those at the left escaped. The Eu- 
calyptus globulus (Blue gum), Schinus moile (so-called Pepper- 
tree), and the Monterey cypress are all used for shelter belts; the 
last named is the best.*—H. J. Rudisill, in American Garden, 
XI., 563. 
Do not locate where your orchard will be exposed to severe 
winds. Quite a large proportion of fruit is lost every year by 
being whipped against thorns and branches, and the trees them- 
selves are sometimes half stripped of leaves. If you have reason 
*The reason for the escape of the trees is, no doubt, the fact that the 
high shelter shaded the grove in the morning, preventing the sun from 
striking directly upon the frosted trees.—L. H. B. 
