270 
PROTECTION FROM WINDS. 
Protection from Winds.— The effect of protection from the 
winds is nearly the same for delicate trees as for delicate human 
beings. “ Keep out of a strong draught of air ” is a common 
admonition given to those who are healthy, as well as to invalids ; 
and this, too, when only the pleasant breath of summer is to be 
guarded against. Now when we reflect that trees have not the 
power of warming themselves by exercise, but must stand with suf- 
fering patience the coldest blasts of winter, with no more covering 
on body and limbs than sufficed them in genial summer air, how 
thoughtless and heartless of us to expect any of them, least of all 
the denizens of semi-tropical forests, to laugh with blossoms, and 
grow fat with leaves, after being exposed to all the rigors of a 
northern winter. Ought we not to be most thankful that even the 
hardened species of northern zones can bear the vicissitudes of our 
climate ? And if semi-tropical trees can also be made to thrive by 
kindly protection, should we grudge them the care which their deli- 
cacy demands? 
Much as our horticultural writers have endeavored to impress 
the importance of protection from winds, by means of walls of 
hardy evergreen trees, few persons have had the opportunity of 
observing how great the benefits of such protection. Houses, out- 
buildings, and high fences may generally be so connected by such 
hedges and screens as to form warm bays and sheltered nooks 
where many trees and shrubs of novel beauty may be grown, which, 
in exposed situations, would either die outright or eke out a dis- 
eased and stunted existence. This remark applies with most force 
to the smaller trees and shrubs for which constructive protections 
against winds may be erected with no great expense ; or verdant 
Vv^alls may be grown within a few years. Yet larger trees like the 
Magnolia machrophylla and the Bhotan pine (Al excelsa) may be so 
protected in their early growth that the health and vigor acquired 
during the first ten years of careful attention to their needs will 
enable them to resist vicissitudes of climate which trees of the same 
species, less judiciously reared, would die under. Vigor of con- 
stitution in animals is not alone a matter of race and family, but 
also to a considerable degree the result of education and training. 
Delicate youths who nurse their strength, and battle with their own 
