EXPERIMENT STATION BULLETINS. 145 



started, tliey keep growing year by year, and before yon are aware of it, the 

 little trees have grown npward and spread outward. Suppose yon were 

 to plough a strip a rod wide and ten or fifteen rods long either in a straight 

 line, in a curve or in an irregular shape. That would not cost much. Then 

 harrow it well as though you were fitting the piece for corn." 



C. "Then I should have to go to the woods and find some good trees, dig 

 them, cart them to the house, dig deejj holes, set the trees, stake them, 

 miilcli them, wait a while, and see half of them die and the others would 

 look pale and stunted." 



B. "I think you could do better than that. Of course you must arrange 

 the fence so as to keep cattle, sheep, and horses away from young trees. 

 Let us see about the plan for a wind-break or for a small grove. You can 

 put in as many kinds of trees as you like, the more the better, if you want 

 to try experiments and think you would like to study them and learn their 

 habits, but if you want trees that will grow fast, that are likely to remain 

 healthy and will furnish protection, you need only one, two, or three species 

 which are the best adapted for the purpose. We can't afford to go to the 

 woods and dig trees. We can buy them cheaper." 



C. "Buy them! AVhy, a nurseryman will charge me twenty-five to fifty 

 cents a piece for his evergreens. I can't afford that." 



B. "Procure small trees; they will cost much less; they can be more 

 easily planted; will be more likely to live, and after a few years they will 

 very likely catch up and overtake trees which were larger at the time of 

 planting. The foundation of your screen will consist of evergreens. If 

 others are added which are not evergreens, they should not be put in 

 blocks each sort by itself, but mixed more or less in checker-board style 

 with the evergreens. And the evergreens may as well be mixed if no 

 others are planted. You will want to set them in rows, straight, curved or 

 crooked, in one way four feet apart and three or four feet apart in the 

 row so they can be as easily cultivated one way as corn or potatoes. There 

 is little risk in setting too thickly, and the trees will sooner shade the 

 ground. 



"R. Douglas & Sons, Waukegan, Illinois will send by mail: 



"White pmes, 3 years old, @ $L00 per lOO; or $8 per 1,000. 



" Norway spruces, 3 years old, @ 75 per 100 or $6 per 1,000. 



"At about the same price, you can procure any or all of the following: 

 European larch, white ash, American elm, black cherry, black locust, and 

 many others, remembering that for good screens, half or more of the trees 

 should be evergreens rather equally distributed over the ground. W. W. 

 Johnson, Snowflake, Antrim Co., Michigan, will doubtless send young trees 

 at the above prices. A single row or two rows will make a good screen, 

 but you will be better pleased with a wider strip of trees." 



C. "I will send a postal card right away and get the price lists from 

 these two men. It won't cost much to start a screen in this way. Tell me 

 more about setting the trees, as you seem to know concerning such things." 



B. "The trees arrive about the time you are sowing oats. Open the 

 packages, and place the roots in damp soil in the shade, not forgetting 

 that the roots of trees are unfitted by nature to stand the air. In the wind 

 or the sun or in dry air, or in the open air, roots will live just about as long- 

 as a black bass will live out of water; not much longer. Prepare some 

 thin mud in a pail, filling it a third full. In this mud place the roots of 

 the trees one sort at a time. Of course yoii have staked or marked out your 

 ground. Dig a small hole with a spade and let the boy drop a tree in the 

 19 



