ARBORICULTURE 



A MONTHLY MAGAZINE. 



Published in the Interest of the 

 International Society of Arboriculture. 



Subscription, f LOO per annum. 



John 1'. BuijwN, Editor, Connersville, Indiana 



Volume II. 



CHICAGO, JUNE, 1903. 



Nuirvbec 5. 



The Control of Wind by Forests. 



BOTANICAL 

 GARDEN 



"The wind blowcth where it listeth, 

 and thon hearest the sound thereof, but 

 canst not tell whence it cometh and 

 whither it goeth :" — John, iii :8. 



Stagnation is death. Water is puri- 

 fied by pouring over rocks in niountani 

 streams, and by flowing rapidly in 

 rivers. The ocean is always in motion 

 upon its surface, while numerous cur- 

 rents flow throughout its entire extent. 

 The atmosphere takes up the poisonous 

 gases from ever}- source and by constant 

 motion maintains its purity. 



Even if it were desirable to turn back 

 the current of the Mississi])pi and stop 

 its onward tfow, or to command the wind 

 to be still, one would be as impossible as 

 the other ; but the current of the great 

 river is controlled by a system of levees, 

 and made to flow in a regular channel, 

 and just as well can the force of the wind 

 be regulated, and its damaging effects 

 eliminated or greatly modified if we will 

 but make the effort. 



There is not a season which passes but 

 we have numerous reports of great dam- 

 age done by wind ; uprooting isolated 

 trees, breaking branches from those of 

 more brittle nature, shaking the fruit 

 from orchard trees, scorching farm 

 crops by the hot breath of the sirocco in 

 midsummer, freezing flocks of sheep and 

 herds of cattle upon the ranges in win- 

 ter, blockading roads and railway sys- 

 tems by snow drifts., carrying away large 

 structures at times and tearing buildings 

 in twain in exposed localities. 



These occurrences are usually upon the 



prairies or plains and in regions where 

 the forests have been removed and but 

 few trees remain, which being unsup- 

 ported by surrounding forests, give way 

 Ijefore unusual blasts. 



While I am aware that storms fre- 

 quently uproot trees which lie in their 

 paths, in certain forest locations, I am 

 also acquainted with the conditions exist- 

 ing in Mississippi and other states, espe- 

 cially in the South, where there are thick 

 forests having evidences of storms, with 

 wide swaths of fallen timber which were 

 cleared by former "old hurricanes," as 

 they are locally called. ^ 



In these localities a shallow soil of 

 sand is underlaid with a hard pan of stiff 

 clay, through which the pine roots fail to 

 penetrate, the tap roots curling about 

 like a corkscrew on reaching this impen- 

 etrable hard pan. Few strong lateral 

 roots are formed to support the trees and 

 the wind having great leverage, they are 

 upturned by comparatively slight wind 

 storms. 



Yet the fact still remains that the most 

 devastating storms and those of great- 

 est frequency have their pathway in tree- 

 less regions, which also are without 

 mountain protection. 



Siroccos, hurricanes, tornadoes, 

 cyclones and wind currents of every char- 

 acter have laws governing their move- 

 ments, and such storms may be controlled 

 or modified to great extent by proper 

 efforts upon the part of people who re- 

 side in the locations where they prevail, 



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