FRUIT-GROWERS’ REPORT. 
409' 
though the fruit may not attain to that enormous size grown in 
the alluvial valley, we are fully compensated by its superior 
character and keeping qualities. Many suppose the less wind 
the more stable the tree; but truly the effect of a constant 
wind is to induce a self-sustaining condition of root and branch, 
and only the furious tornado or summer wind-storms are to be 
dreaded, which always sweep with most force through the val¬ 
ley and mountain gorge, doing more damage in the vale than 
on the hill. Had we the climate of humid England, where the 
extremes of temperature are not feared, and winter-killing is un¬ 
known, w'e might well choose the most sunny location for fruit; 
but as it is, by imitating the cultivators of Europe, we have 
had drawbacks as remarkable as our climate is different from 
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theirs. 
Bearing on this subject, we quote A. J. Downing in note to- 
Lind. Theory Hort., p. 135, “The first impulse of the novice 
in gardening, is to place such half hardy plants in some shel¬ 
tered spot, open to the genial rays of the sun in winter;- a 
practice invariably followed by their destruction. Our sun, 
even in mid-winter, often shines with great brightness, and the 
thawing and distension of the tissue of tender plants which 
therefore follows, causes certain death. If, on the contrary, 
the species are placed in a cool shaded aspect, or what is pre¬ 
ferable, if they are shaded from the sun by a loose covering of 
straw, mats, or even boards, and thus kept from thawing except 
in the most gradual manner, they will be found to have sus¬ 
tained no injury whatever. For the same reason orchards of 
peach trees in the Middle States on the cold north sides of 
hills, are often more vigorous and of greater longevity than 
those in a full southern aspect; the heat of our summers being 
sufficient to ripen their fruit and wood in such situations, while 
they are thus secure from the evils of great and sudden chan¬ 
ges of temperature in winter.” 
How truly these principles apply in the case of the sunny- 
side-of-the-hill orchard , where there is this unequal expan¬ 
sion,) of the tissue, to be followed by as sudden contraction 
from cold, which results in disorganization and death. 
