60 The Principles of Fruit-growing 



lation of air in certain localities, particular care should be 

 exercised in the construction of the windbreak. The pre- 

 vailing winds are the ones chiefly to be avoided. This is 

 particularly important in regions in which these winds 

 are normally strong, as on the ocean shore. In fact, it is 

 usually impossible to grow successful orchards in full 

 exposure to the ocean. 



How to make the windbreak. — From a general study 

 of the subject, it appears that in interior localities dense 

 plantings are commonly advisable, tight hedges often being 

 recommended. This is because the winds, coming off the 

 land, are likely to make the plantation colder. In localities 

 influenced by bodies of water, however, it is apparently 

 better practice to plant a belt only for the purpose of 

 breaking or checking the force of the warmer winds, still 

 allowing them to pass in their course. Such a belt gives 

 the desired shelter to trees when laden with fruit and ice, 

 and may hold the snow, while danger from comparatively 

 still air is averted. The damage from still air is usually 

 observed in the lee of natural forests, and it is in such 

 places that injury is reported by correspondents. The 

 writer has found no indisputable evidence to show that 

 such injury ever accompanies artificial windbreaks; places 

 where such injury was reported have been visited, but the 

 loss of trees and fruit was plainly due to age of trees or 

 other obvious reasons. Still, it is probable that a hedgfe- 

 like windbreak may sometimes be the cause of mischief; 

 and such should never be made in any locality until the 

 problems of local atmospheric drainage have been well 

 considered. 



The coarser evergreens, planted close together, are 

 therefore advisable for interior places, while deciduous 

 trees, or evergreens somewhat scattered, are often better 



