.870 ° MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY 
OBSTACLES TO BE OVERCOME, 
I think that the greatest obstacle in the list is the fact that so 
many farmers of our prairies have come from states where they 
have been accustomed to cut down trees, or at least their forefathers 
were tree-destroyers, and it isa difficult task for such an one to 
reverse the method and begin to growa tree instead. Until one has 
set himself about that work, it appears to bea lifelong and endless 
task to grow trees. Manyaman upon our prairies would today 
have some shelter about his premises, which he has not, if it had 
not been for this one fact in his mental make up. 
The prairies are naturally adapted to the growing of grass rather 
than to the growing of trees. This is mainly owing to the fact that 
the ciimate is more dry than in those sections where trees are 
naturally grown, 
A third difficulty is found in another fact that one must learn how 
to grow atree on these prairies; and as he learns he will find that 
the method is peculiar to the locality, and that certain things must 
be done that we never thought of as being needful in the wooded 
districts of the eastern states. 
Many aman hastried to grow trees and failed, or the roamt has 
been so near a failure that he has become discouraged and ceased 
to try. This, today, is one of the greatest difficulties in attempting 
to stimulate a greater effort in tree growing upon the prairie re- 
gions of our west. 
The lack of knowledge as to what trees should be planted in order 
to make a success is yet another difficulty inthe way. The native 
trees are found upon the lower lands near the banks of streams. 
The cottonwood is the largest of them all, and by most has been 
selected as the tree with which to start the first shelter about the 
early home, This tree was probably selected because it would start 
from a cutting, and so the beginning was easily made. Cotton- 
woods upon the hard, dry prairies of the west are a failure, and 
many a man looks with sadness upon the dying trees that are 
dwindling away which were planted by him in his early pioneer 
days. 
THE SUCCESSFUL METHOD. 
So far experience has not brought our attention to a better tree for 
the outskirts of a grove or for shelter belts than the gray willow, 
and we will add to this (we think with safety) the golden willow, 
which is an importation from Russia by Professor Budd, of Iowa, 
These make a great growth quiterapidly. Thelimbs are pliant and 
will yield to the strongest wind and then return to their upright 
position as soon as the storm has ceased. We hada great test of 
the value of this tree in the fall of 1896, when a storm of sleet felk 
upon our trees, so that limbs as big as one’s little finger were in- 
cased with ice the size of a man’s fist. The willows which formed 
our shelter belts were loaded with ice so heavily that the tops bent 
to the ground. They were so loaded for nearly two weeks, when a 
thawing period released them from their icy covering and they at 
once assumed an upright position, standing, on an average nearly 
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