170 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



BEST VARIETIES OF EVERGREENS FOR WINDBREAKS. 



S. D. RICHARDSON, WINNEBAGO CITY. 



What I shall say will have reference to the couuties of Faribault 

 and Martin, and as Minnesota is a big state with much variation in 

 soil and climate, each one must judge for himself how far what I 

 say will apply to his location. 



We are in the prairie country southeast of the "Big Woods," sub- 

 ject to extremes of drouth and moisture and furious winds. I do 

 not think that these extremes e.re any worse than they were thirty 

 years ago; perhaps, not quite so bad. Our subsoil is usually a clay 

 that is heavy and firm as long as it contains any moisture, but not 

 so solid but what it is penetrated freely by roots of all kinds. In 

 long continued drouth the upper part shrinks up into little round 

 balls like fine gravel that can be shoveled quite easily. When this 

 happens, woe to the evergreen that its owner does not water or that 

 has not roots that have gone to a deeper level where there is mois- 

 ture. I have noticed the behavior of our native red cedar under 

 these conditions for many years, and while I used to think it was 

 too slow a grower and did not amount to much, I have found that 

 it is a good grower and is the least affected by drouth and wind of 

 all the evergreens that I have tried. 



The spruce comes next with power to resist wind and drouth. I 

 recollect an instance in our own experience that happened some ten 

 or twelve years ago that will illustrate this fact. We transplanted 

 several thousand small Scotch pine, arbor vita;, balsam fir, and 

 spruce for the second time. We had a very dry season, and the 

 result was that the most of the spruce lived and made a fair growth, 

 and the most of the others died. So I will say in answer to the ques- 

 tion asked: Best varieties of evergreens for shelter belt, native red 

 cedar, spruce and Scotch pine. The white pine and red, or Norway, 

 pine are worthless with us. They winter-kill. We have tried both 

 thoroughly, for we wanted some on our premises, but failed. 



Mr. Dartt : You say the native red cedar. What do you 

 mean? 



Mr. Richardson: I mean the northern grown cedar. I had 

 occasion to buy red cedar from Illinois. All but two of them 

 were failures. 



Mr. Dartt: I will give you my experience with the red cedar. 

 I started in growing evergreens on a small scale, and I bought 

 red cedar three or four times and planted them and took care 

 of them, but after three or four years I found that a portion of 

 them were failing. The last of those I bought, I bought for the 

 tree station; there were fifty or a hundred of them; I set them 

 out, and they did just as the others did. They were said to be 

 grown from northern seed, but they commenced dying, and as 

 much as four-fifths were grubbed out, but there were some 

 specimens among them that proved to be hardy and grew to be 



