142 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



I have never tried evergreens, but I have seen some strips near 

 Ripon, Wisconsin, which were planted by the C, M. & St. P. R'y. Co. 

 along their cuts, which seem to do the work they were intended 

 for perfectly, and, at the same time, they are very pretty. It would 

 be a very hard job to start them in Dakota. My farm is a noted farm 

 on account of the abundance of trees growing on it, and it is a noted 

 fact on my farm that crops are much better within a distance of 

 fifteen rods of the trees on the north side of the strips that run east 

 and west than on the open prairie. I am positive that if all the 

 farms of Dakota could be divided into forty acre fields by strips of 

 trees running east and west, making the fields 40 rods wide and 160 

 rods long, crops would be much better, especially in dry seasons* 

 when the hot winds from the south play siich havoc. 



DISCUSSION. 



Mr. C. L. Smith : How near were those walnut trees ? 



Mr. Clark : Right up against them. 



Mr. Dartt : I would like to know if a great deal of advantage 

 does not come from the result of that snowdrift being stopped 

 and carrying that moisture in the soil in the spring when it 

 melts. 



Mr. Clark : Usually there are snowbanks on the south side 

 of those strips. I have seen evidence in the spring that they 

 had been twelve feet high, because the jack rabbits have taken 

 bark off that high up, and those banks are usually on the 

 south side. You find the effects best on the north side of 

 the trees. I do not think it is that, but it is the protection from 

 the south winds. When we get no snow at all we observe that 

 same difference. 



The President : Do you think it would be practicable for 

 people in general to plant out willows and then ash and next to 

 the ash a belt of evergreens ? Could they be made to live and 

 be a success, and would not those evergreens, if they could be 

 made to live, make a better wind protection both for summer 

 and winter ? 



Mr. Clark : I think undoubtedly the evergreens would be 

 better. What evergreens I have seen in Dakota are a scaly 

 looking lot of trees. There might possibly be such a thing as 

 making a success of them by having them protected by willows 

 and giving them thorough cultivation. I presume they would 

 not break down. I find if you plant in strips you have got to 

 trim them pretty well. If the strip is four rods wide all the 

 limbs on the inside will break right down. The winds are so 

 fierce and the snow piles up so high that it breaks every tree 

 right down, and you have got to keep them above that snow. 



