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crops, fruit trees and stock from the strong prairie winds which, developing into storms, 

 cause almost every season vast injury. 



It is not at all improbable that the planting of forests on the prairies in Manitoba, 

 Dakota and Iowa, will be the solution of that most embarrassing problem — the grass- 

 hoppers — by affording obstructions to the high winds which bring these insects from 

 their habitats farther west, and by furnishing suitable homes for myriads of birds which 

 would keep the increase of the grasshoppers in check. 



The planting of forests will also probably solve the question of the successful growth 

 of fruits in Manitoba and the Northwest. Fruit trees need protection alike from storms 

 and from parching winds, and especially in our western prairie country is this necessary. 

 It has been laid down as almost an axiom in the western States, that the forest trees 

 must precede the fruit trees in order to afford such protection. 



In Minnesota an earnest effort has been made to encourage the planting of trees. A 

 State Forestry Association has been organized, and annually offers premiums for the largest 

 number of trees planted on a day in May denominated Arbour Day. It is estimated 

 that in the spring of 1877 there were 5,290,000 trees planted in Minnesota, and of these 

 over half a million were put in on Arbour Day. During the entire planting season of 

 that year it is believed that about ten millions of trees were planted, and of these, that 

 about seventy per cent, have lived. 



The question of tree planting is one which should be actively taken up at once in our 

 Northwest. The Government of Manitoba could not grapple with a more pressing sub- 

 ject for legislation, unless it be drainage. The greatest drawbacks against which the 

 Northwest has to contend, from an agricultural point of view, are wet lands, scarcity of 

 timber, and liability to high winds, and, in some localities, to summer frosts. Dakota 

 and Minnesota have equally these drawbacks. The Manitoba Legislature has taken up 

 the question of drainage, and active eff'orts are now being made in some parts of the 

 country to reclaim the wet lands. To cope with storms and frosts seems hopeless, and 

 yet experience has found the great value of belts of trees around each farm as aff'ording 

 effective shields against these. What the Government there should do is to promote 

 Forestry Associations, and to, in every way, encourage tree planting by exemptions from 

 taxation or by direct premiums or bonuses. Any such encouragement successfully fol- 

 lowed up will be returned one hundred fold in the larger and more certain crops, the 

 store of wood for lumber and fuel created by the growing timber, the relief from the 

 monotony of the prairie landscape through the belts of trees dotting the scene on every 

 side, and not least, in a more contented and prosperous community of farmers. 



The beneficial results obtained by planting rapid growing trees in the prairie dis- 

 tricts of the west, are shown in the paper next submitted. 



WIND BREAKS ON THE PRAIRIES. 

 By Suel Foster, Iowa. 



To the President and Members of the Forestry Association : 



The natural circulation of the air is no doubt very healthful to both man and beast ; 

 but like all the great, wise, and good things the Creator has provided for us, an excess is 

 injurious. Too much cold, too much heat, too much rain, too much drouth, too much 

 wind, too much calm have their evil results. It becomes us, industrious and intelligent 

 men, to modify the excesses in all these elements. When the piercing rays of the sun 

 scorch the tender young plants of the nurseryman, he shields them from half these rays, 

 when too cold in winter he covers with earth, or takes them to the cellar or green-house ; 

 when too wet he drains, when too dry he waters. All these things should be managed 

 with economy and they should not cost too much. 



A line or belt of ti*ees around the dwelling, the barn, stock-yard, garden, or orchard, 

 is a valuable improvement that no home should neglect ; one half the situations in a hilly 

 country and in all the prairie are very uncomfortuble without trees ; besides it looks like 



