CHAPTER XXXL. 
PROTECTION FROM WIND AND FROSTS. 
Though the climate of California renders unnecessary the 
protection against rigorous weather which fruit growers in some 
other parts-of the world have to provide, there is often advan- 
tage in securing shelter from winds and protection from late 
frosts. 
The general subject of forest planting in California, and the 
effect of preservation and extension of our forest area upon our 
fruit industries, has received the attention of our best-informed 
growers. The planting of shelter belts at intervals across our 
broad valleys at right angles to the courses of prevailing or 
most violent winds, has also been urged with great force. These 
greater enterprises and projects are beyond the scope of this 
treatise. It is rather concerning the planting of trees to shelter 
individual possessions that a few suggestions will be offered. 
It has been already remarked that on the immediate coast 
the successful growth of fruit will sometimes be wholly depend- 
ent upon proper shelter from prevailing winds, and in regions 
farther from the ocean the topography may induce strong cur- 
rents of air which will illy affect trees and vines. In all such 
places the fruit grower should: plant windbreaks, and will find 
himself well repaid for the ground they occupy, 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 destructive both to trees and fruit. 
In some cases long lines of sheltering trees have been cut down 
because they affected the fruiting of orchard trees planted too 
near them, and afterwards the losses through lack of protection 
were far greater than would have been incurred by retaining 
them. 
What Kind of Trees to Plant——This is a question concern- 
ing which there is much to be learned. Data is accumulating 
in the growth of trees planted to test their suitability, and the 
future planter will have more certain ground to proceed upon 
than is now available. Mention will be made, however, of a 
few trees, which are now most widely grown. 
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