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MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



HINTS FROM EXPERIENCE IN GROWING SHELTER 



BELTS. 



CHAS. B. CLARK, MINNEAPOLIS. 



My experience in growing- shelter belts has been mostly by proxy^ 

 though I have done some planting myself. I was raised on a farm 

 in Waukesha county, Wisconsin, but for the past twenty-four years 

 have been a commercial traveler. As such, however, I have many 

 a time driven over the western prairies during a snow storm and 

 have frequently faced heavy winds, so that I know how to appreciate 

 fully the blessings to be derived from good shelter belts, and this 

 accounts for the interest I take in growing them. 



I have a farm at Eldridge, in Stutsman county, North Dakota, 

 where I have grown twenty acres of trees, and I have also planted 

 and cared for three tree claims of ten acres each, in addition, near 

 my farm. I have made a success of all of these plats of trees so that 

 the trees are now from twenty to forty feet high, and title was 

 obtained from the government upon all of these claims (including 

 my own) by having the required number of trees of the proper size 

 at the time of final proof. 



Shelter belts can be grown in either Minnesota or Dakota east of 

 the Missouri river if you subdue the land thoroughly before plant- 

 ing, if you plow deep and if you plant your trees thickly. These are 

 the three essential points, but the deep plowing is the most essen- 

 tial. Of course, the trees must be taken care of after planting. They 

 must be cultivated, and the grass kept subdued until the^trees shade 

 the ground completely. 



W 



On my tree-claim', I planted a strip nearly four rods wide alt 

 around the outside, and on my homestead, which joins my tree- 

 claim on the west, I planted a strip on the north and west sides^ 

 about the same width, and one row of trees on the south side, be- 

 sides some strips for shelter on the north and west of my buildings.. 



