GROWING TREES IN AND FOR THE WINDBREAK. 183 



twos, I have no doubt that they would find the price very Httle more 

 than that of forest trees. If they will not purchase the shrubs, then 

 I should advise them to use deciduous trees on the outside of the 

 grove and leave these rows untrimmed. If the farmers of our 

 prairies were to deal strictly with the nurserymen and our forest 

 tree men they would find that the planting of a, say, three or four 

 acre shelter grove on the north and west sides of their farm buildings 

 would not cost them the first year over $20.00 or $25.00 all told. By 

 taking my advice in planting many sorts, they will find that the trees 

 themselves grow thicker and better and give a more natural ap- 

 pearance to the whole grove. For appearance's sake do not put a 

 Cottonwood in with other trees, because they grow so much faster 

 and taller than the trees that I have named that it will give a dwarfish 

 appearance to the rest of the grove, and also because a cottonwood 

 tree's roots spread to the detriment of almost every other kind of tree. 



After having planted your trees, say, four feet apart in the row 

 and rows eight feet apart, be liberal wath your cultivation. Trees 

 will return a dividend for a dust blanket as much as corn will. Be- 

 ginning this cultivation each year early in the spring, cultivate four 

 times and finish early m July. The following fall prune your young 

 trees (with the exception of coniferous trees and shrubs) to one 

 trunk, and continue this annually as long as the tree roots do not 

 make the cultivation too heavy upon your horses. Four years from 

 planting you will 'have a good windbreak for your yards. The fall 

 of the year is the time for trimming and not in the spring, when it 

 will cause trees to bleed. I would plant three or four trees of a kind 

 together and then three or four trees of another kind next to them 

 in a row, so that when you begin to thin out you will always be able 

 to leave the same proportion of each kind as when first planted. 

 Protect your trees with proper fencing, just the same as you would 

 your orchard. 



The few words of advice herein are given from a thirty years' 

 experience in planting groves upon the open prairie country of south- 

 west Minnesota. 



The forest aids the fruit grower in two ways : First, it prevents 

 the severe sweep of winds breaking trees and creating sudden atmos- 

 pheric changes ; second, it conserves and balances atmospheric mois- 

 ture. The sweep of winds when undisturbed bears away the mois- 

 ture from the soil and also from the trees and their buds. It is well 

 known that fruit buds wnll endure two or three degrees severer 

 freezing- when the air is moist than when it is drv. — E. P. P. 



