216 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



THE SHELTER BELT AS A FACTOR IN STOCK GROWING. 



O. C. GREGG, LYND. 



Before I say a word upon the topic assigned me I would like to make 

 this suggestion: We all differ in our methods because we differ in 

 our individuality, but I want to express myself strongly in favor of 

 growing trees on the land, and trees alone. Do not make this mix- 

 ture of corn and potatoes. I want also to speak in favor of the 

 Planet Jr. horse hoe. Perhaps you all use it. It is a perfect god- 

 send to me, for it will just cut the soil about one and one-half inches 

 deep, and it is marvelous how much work a man can do with it in a 

 short time. When labor is so high we find a decided advantage in 

 using those labor saving implements. I wished for something of 

 the kind, and I thought perhaps I could invent something, but one 

 day I happened to run across just the thing I wanted in an imple- 

 ment house, and I have used it ever since. I think I was born with 

 a hatred for weeds. They taught me that weeds came from the 

 devil. I have heard men say it costs too much money to keep the 

 land clean. If you kill a few weeds today and then let them go a 

 few days longer, you cannot do anything. It is the cheapest and 

 best way to follow the old adage, "Whatever is worth doing at all is 

 worth doing well." 



Now a word about this topic, "The Relation of the Shelter Belt to 

 the Stock Grower." I shall speak as a farmer in southwestern Min- 

 nesota, but what I shall say will apply in part to the whole state. 

 I am satisfied we have been doing many things for years simply be- 

 cause our forefathers did them in the east where we came from. I 

 have done dozens of things every year that I will never do again 

 simply because I had become accustomed to doing them. What 

 success I have had has been due to studying different conditions 

 and trying to adapt myself to those conditions. Nature is a bad 

 teacher. I am taught that lesson on the prairies where I have been 

 for thirty years, and where the winds blow just the same as they did 

 thirty years ago, and every month has its peculiar gale. When my 

 friend was speaking adversely to the willow I could not help think- 

 ing of the willow hedge I have at home. It has stood up against 

 the south wind for nearly thirty years, and today it stands just as 

 upright as ever, and when the wind blows hard it bends and bends 

 until its head almost touches the ground, and when the wind goes 

 down it comes straight up again although it has lost a part of its 

 head. 



Now to the central thonght. Study conditions. In the east we had 

 an abundance of rain and snow, and it became a necessity that our 

 stock should be confined to the stables. In the arid country they 

 can turn their stock loose in the winter; they do not have to protect 

 as much as in the east. We are in western Minnesota, or just be- 

 tween the two places, and we must learn to handle our stock on both 

 the eastern and western methods. The stock in the east was bur- 

 dened with one thing, the sense of confinement, the sense that men 

 get with slaves. Mental attitude has much to do with growth. It is 

 the same with the beast, and the more liberty we can give our stock 

 the better they will thrive. We can give them liberty only to a cer- 



