13 
not neglect the lessons they give so promptly to every careful ob- 
server. 
If, therefore, to bring our too tall growing trees into a form more - 
to our taste, we must needs violate nature’s well established laws, 
let the shock and reaction be lessened as much as may be, by am- 
putating their tops as little at a time as we consistently can. The 
“ pinching-back” process, i e. applying the thumb and finger to the 
growing point of the branches in the summer, while the trees are 
small, and so pinching them that they stop extending beyond the 
heighth we may desire, is the best of all methods for preventing 
too talla growth. By so doing, no reaction of consequence will 
take place, and no waste of grown wood is permitted to occur. 
' HOW TO PROTECT FROM CLIMATE, INSECTS AND ANIMALS, 
Our climate is in some respects a peculiar one, and yet our efforts 
to guard against its injurious effects need not be either difficult or 
arduous. The location of our orchards and fruit gardens is the first 
thing to be considered, though possessing really far less importance 
than many imagine. Every one would like both for convenience 
and safety, to have the orchard near their dwellings, but many sup- 
pose that the position of the land must be just according to their 
own ideal, or all hopes of raising fruit may as well be abandoned. 
No fears are really more groundless or conclusions more erroneous. 
If practicable, a naturally well drained location should be chosen, 
but if that cannot well be done, then prepare to protect the best 
otherwise suitable and convenient ground against excessive wet- 
ness, by underdraining or so ridging it as already stated, as that a 
rapid drainage can be safely depended upon. The particular slope 
of the ground is not as essential as is often supposed, for on lands 
declining towards every point of the compuss, blessed with any sort 
of proper cultivation, I have seen good orchard trees growing and 
bearing bountifully in all the settled portions of Northern Iowa. 
Other things being equal, I should choose a gradual eastern slope 
for the sake of protection against the usually hard west winds, and 
also to secure the benefit of the sun’s earliest morning rays. If 
not naturally sheltered by the shape of the land, or by groves of 
trees on the west, north-west and southwest, then plant a good sup- 
ply of the best rapid-growing, low-branchiug forest trees upon those 
sides, and that too without at all delaying the planting of the or- 
