10 FIELD NOTES ON APPLE CULTURE, 
well underdrained, and the trees have received good cul- 
ture and an uncommon attention towards cultural experi- 
ments. Nevertheless, this orchard has never borne a 
good crop, and many of the trees have been winter-killed. 
/High lands are preferable for orchards, from the fact 
that they enforce atmospheric drainage. “Cold air is 
heavier than warm air, and it settles on the lowest grounds. 
All have noticed the warmer air on the hills, when riding 
over a hilly country at night. / Crops upon high or sloping 
lands escape frost, while those in the valleys are seriously 
injured. “In still winter weather I have known a differ- 
ence of ten degrees between contiguous places with a 
difference of thirty feet in altitude. 
The aspect of the ground is sometimes important.’ If 
the locality is especially liable to late spring frosts a 
northern slope is to be preferred, since the trees will not 
start very early in the spring. Near large bodies of water, 
and in other places where there is no danger from late 
frosts, a southern slope is probably to be desired. Other 
things being equal, the southern slope will produce the 
highest colored and finest flavored apples. The same is 
true of a sandy soil. 
There are many idle hillsides which would bear good 
apple orchards. New England is especially rich in such 
sites. As we approach the inviting, intensive husbandry 
of the future, we must begin to appreciate the value of 
many. of our waste lands for orcharding purposes. 
WINDBREAKS FOR ORCHARDS. 
During a still, cold ‘snap in a fruit-growing locality, 
when the mercury sinks to twenty below zero, it is the 
