NOTES OT THE WINDBREAK. 211 



help the more permanent trees to grow. The old box elder that we 

 all know so well is one of the best nurse trees we have. The ash 

 tree, which I believe is a lasting tree with fine wood — and more 

 heat, I believe, can be obtained from ash wood than from any other 

 wood we grow in Minnesota, and it is hardy. The only fault and the 

 only objection is that the leaf is taken off by a worm. Still the box 

 elder planted on either side will remedy that to a great extent, and 

 it will do in one year what it would require three years to do without 

 the box elder. I grew it by planting in a grove three or four of a 

 kind in each row, and that will enable one to cut out afterward in- 

 ferior trees and forest trees of a mixed kind. 



Perhaps I can just allude to this, that as the leaves of the trees 

 spread themselves before the sun an analysis is performed in which 

 something goes into the sap of the tree, and when that sap is changed 

 it begins to return in the wood and tree. Those leaves as they show 

 themselves to the sun take in different colors of the sun. If you 

 plant the same kind of tree, one next to the other, you will naturally 

 find that the trees will not do so well. For instance the ash tree, 

 which is of such a different color from almost any other tree, will 

 grow alongside a strip of cottonwood or any other kind of tree that 

 has not very extensive branches, and the simple reason is that one 

 tree takes in a certain color from the sun while the other tree takes 

 in other colors of the sun, and I found for that reason it was better 

 for me to mix my trees. 



Another thing that is needed to make our trees a perfect shelter 

 is to be sure that we have a smaller grove and a thicker grove on the 

 outside of our groves. My plan used to be to trim up the inside rows 

 of my trees, trim them thoroughly. By the way, in the matter of 

 trimming we have great complaint of the soft maple not being a 

 hardy tree. The principal reason for that is that people will usually 

 trim them in the spring of the year, and in such trimming they are 

 injuring the tree, and by extensive bleeding for one year in three or 

 four years afterward the tree loses its vigor and dies. Therefore, 

 we should be careful at what time of the year we trim our trees. I 

 used to allow the outside trees to grow without trimming, and I 

 found it a great benefit. Since then I found a new plan. Your 

 friends up here used to ridicule me because I knew nothing about 

 the evergreen. Now, I begin to place the Scotch pine with the Eu- 

 ropean larch, and they will thrive ; then place the European larch to 

 nurse the Scotch pine, and I find by that mixture and placing them 

 outside the grove for the sake of economy, I find that a small grove 

 that is reset will turn more wind than a large grove of tall ^rees 

 trimmed to the verv outside. 



