STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 151 



and brooks, bringing cyclones and blizzards, drouth and cold, and be- 

 queathing to our children a barren, uninhabitable desert. We can 

 leave behind us no nobler monuments than trees and groves. If we 

 multiply these, our lands will be more fertile and fruitful, the winds 

 less harsh, our homes more beautiful, and future generations will arise 

 to call us blessed. 



Mr. Brand, the chairman of the committee on pine lands, was 

 requested to present his report. 



THE GREAT VALUE OF EVERGREENS FOR WINDBREAKS. 

 By 0. F. Brand, Faribault. 



We used to have reasonable winters in this State — winters when 

 there was but little snow, and when the mercury did not go more than 

 twenty-five to twenty-eight degrees below zero, such winters as 

 1877-8, for instance. Since 1864, I think, we have had three winters 

 that might be called mild, and twenty-four of a diflFerent character. 

 Then we can only expect one reasonable winter to seven or eight se- 

 vere ones. But there has been no winter since 1864 but what stock 

 have needed a good windbreak to shelter them from the cold, cutting 

 winds. If one has a real warm yard into which to turn stock in the 

 winter it will be a saving of the value of at least one-quarter of their 

 feed. This is no exaggeration. That is, if in the ordinary yards and 

 good stables you feed $400 worth of hay, straw, etc., to your stock, in 

 a yard where wind cannot strike the stock ruDning out in the day 

 time, you would not feed out more than $300 worth of feed to have 

 your stock in the same condition, and in that way save $100. There 

 is no reasonable doubt about that. It takes a very large amount of 

 feed to resist cutting cold winds. 



What is the best and cheapest windbreak to be had? I answer, 



A WINDBREAK OF EVERGREENS, 



in my own experience. Four rows of Scotch pine set in 1873 have 

 made a good windbreak for the last nine or ten years, but now they 

 are too open below to keep the snow from blowing through. To pro- 

 tect crops and fields they are fine, still I would prefer one or two row 

 of balsam fir for that purpose in this windy country. 



For a belt of evergreens of ten or more rows I very much admire 



