Two] SELECTING A HOME 
must become, if possible, the owner of such a belt 
of timber, or it will be cut down after you have 
planted yourself under its shelter. ‘This is a matter 
of far more importance than appears on a pleasant 
summer day. ‘Temperature often varies two or 
three degrees within an eighth of a mile. While it 
is true that you must master conditions wherever 
you go, you do not need to make the life-struggle 
more serious by an ill-chosen location. Perhaps 
you do not know, yet it is true that climate so varies 
that fruit-growing, which is favorably carried on 
under the shelter of a range of hills, is barely possi- 
ble in the valley, and impossible at the top of the 
range. The best position, as a rule, faces the south- 
east — with the colder winds broken by the hills 
above. Such an exposure also takes the morning 
sunshine, which is especially conducive to plant- 
health and growth. But it is not your orchard that 
you must alone provide for; you are going to grow 
children, and these will need the best possible nat- 
ural conditions for health and sweetness. Condi- 
tions that will grow a first-rate Northern Spy apple 
are none too good for growing red-cheeked and 
warm-hearted children. A southeast exposure 
gathers the heat all day, and is prepared to resist 
[19] 
