136 MINNESOTA STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



natural forests and the creation of artificial forests, claim almost equal 

 attention. 



With an area estimated variously from 20,0000,000 to 30,000,000 acres of 

 virgin forest, largely on non-agricultural land, a resource, which at pres- 

 ent yields in annual values not less than $20,000,000, and employs at tim- 

 ber cutting in the woods alone 20,000 men, every citizen of the state must 

 be concerned in its rational use and continuity; while the southern and 

 western areas of prairie invite the attention of the forest planter. 



As far as the natural forest resource is concerned, I believe there is 

 practically nothing done to protect it against useless and reckless devasta- 

 tion by Are, or to so utilize it, that it may recuperate itself with desirable 

 growth. 



There is, to be sure, on the statutes, a law prescribing a fine against 

 any one willfully or negligently setting fires, but without any organized 

 effort to enforce the law, it is probably entirely useless. 



The efforts in the direction of forest planting have been perhaps more 

 effectual than in the care and rational use of the existing forest area, 

 thanks largely to the interest and enthusiasm of the late Leonard Hodges, 

 and the subsequent exertions of the State Forestry Association. Judging 

 from a distance this movement for the extension of forest areas is pro- 

 gressing much more satisfactorily than that for the rational use of the 

 existing woodlands. 



The need for windbreaks on the prairie has stimulated tree planting, 

 but the planting of windbreaks, consisting of single rows of trees, to sift 

 the cold northwesters, break their fury and temper their iciness, can be 

 improved by substituting timber-belts of sufficient breadth to more 

 effectually and for a greater distance break the fury and also to alter the 

 moisture conditions of the prairie winds; for these injure crops and 

 orchards not only by their cold but by their excessive dryness. 



In planting to forest, it must not be overlooked, that the methods 

 should differ from those practiced in park and orchard planting. In the 

 latter case we have to do with individual trees; each one is an object of 

 our care. In forest planting we have to do with masses of trees, the in- 

 dividual being only of account as far as it forms part of the mass. Hence 

 to get the mass effect, by which forest conditions alone become influen- 

 tial, we must practice mass planting and dense planting. 



In the selection, then, of trees for forest planting, we must first look 

 out for a cheap, easily grown kind, that will cover, and keep covered, the 

 ground. When, by the aid of such, we have created forest conditions, 

 then we may introduce a sufficient number of the better classes of timber 

 trees, which would do well under the protection of the nurse-cover. 



This latter should be of a densely foliaged kind, which protects the soil 

 against evaporation, by its shade, kills out weeds and renders cultivation 

 unnecessary. Evergreens, any kind that can be most readily and cheaply 

 grown, should form part of this first cover. I should advise to use at first 

 no other kinds than those which belong to your region naturally and 

 have shown their capacity to withstand the ills of the climate. 



That mixed planting is preferable to planting of each kind, by itself is 

 not only a lesson to be learned from nature itself, but is so well estab- 

 lished in the better practice, that it needs no discussion. For the con- 

 siderations and rules that should be followed in chosing mixtures, I refer 



