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SHELTER BELTS IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY. © 225 
SHELTER BELTS IN THE RED RIVER VALLEY. 
D. R. MCGINNIS, ST. PAUL. 
I am aware that possibly the advocacy of thick planting will meet 
with criticism, but I have all my life been especially impressed 
with the fact that trees are so dependent on one another that close 
planting is anabsoluteessential. I have noticed thatin the forest 
where young trees are close together they are most flourishing. 
There is a vital reason for this. The wind and the direct rays of the 
sun are the most effective means of stealing the moisture from the 
ground. I will show you another reason. You will find that many 
varieties of trees, where they will not succeed at allin the open 
ground if planted far apart,in the forest will grow and do well. 
It is a very safe thing to say that fruit trees are too close together 
and forest trees too far apart. The reason of it is this: When we 
plant fruit trees we plant them to get a low spreading body, and in 
fruit trees sunshine and wind are favorable to the protection of 
trees and the production of fruit. Take the hickory nut trees in 
central Illinois: those on the edge of the forest do not amount to 
much, but as soon as you get in the center of the forest there are 
solid bodies of magnificent timber. The object is to get a well 
formed trunk. We are not growing the trees for fruit, and I am posi- 
tive that a great deal of the difficulty that we have noticed in tree 
claims on the prairies arises primarily from the fact that the trees 
are planted too far apart. The average tree claim does not succeed 
because, it is likely, the ground is not cultivated enough. If you 
plant trees close together you cannot cultivate them, and if the trees 
grow close together there is no need of cultivating them. Ido not 
mean to advocate the close planting of trees in such a manner that 
they will touch each other, but give each tree the proper amount of 
sun and light to afford ita good growth, but not space enough 
around the trees for the sun and wind to steal the moisture away. 
If you will study this question of what the sun and wind will steal 
from the ground, you will find it is perfectly marvelous. The tem- 
perature at eighty degrees and the wind at twenty miles an hour 
will take away water six times as fast from the ground as it will 
with the temperature at seventy-two degrees and the wind five miles 
anhour. The great trouble is the evaporation. The rain fall in the 
Yukon valley is nineinches. We have vast forests in Alaska that 
are very flourishing. With a.rainfall of nine inches in southern 
Texas, it is a positive desert. Takea groveof thickly planted trees; 
the evaporation is very slow, and in a dry time the moisture is con- 
served. On open ground ifitrainsin adry time, the ground will 
soon be perfectly dry, but where there are trees it is a week or ten 
days before the ground dries out. 
Mr. O. Gibbs, Jr: I wish to endorse what Mr. McGinnis says in re- 
gard to close planting of forest trees. I have been a successful 
_ tree planter in South Dakota, and I have never yet seen one grove 
that was planted in that way that was nota success. I am satisfied 
from observation that the first aim of the tree planter is to go into 
his plantation with a horse cultivator and get over the ground as 
