WINDBREAKS BY THE MILE. 329 



be so effective as the trees when properly taken care of. We are 

 planting willows on the outside. We put in the cottonwood, al- 

 though it doesn't stop the snow very much, but it grows tall and 

 rapidly. The green ash doesn't stop the snow very much, but it is 

 a valuable tree, and it serves our purpose to a certain extent. We 

 like to have a variety of trees, as we may have insect pests which 

 may attack one variety and not another. The box elder is a 

 very desirable tree because it is a shade enduring tree, and its 

 branches grow right down to the ground, arid it is able to live in 

 the shade of the other trees. Then the rest of the trees are wil- 

 lows. The willow is head and shoulders above everything else, 

 and we usually put in four rows of willows near the track. They 

 are used extensively along the Great Northern tracks. 



One of the things we have to do, and one of the reasons we 

 have so many rows of willows, is that we will periodically cut the 

 trees down. In that way they will branch out so we will have a 

 dense branch growth down near the ground. In the course of a 

 few years we will probably cut the second row and afterwards 

 take the next row, and so on. 



We now have 125 feet right of way on the north side and 

 seventy-five on the south side. We shall probably buy up to 125 

 feet on each side of the track. 



We have our own nursery of eighty acres near Drake, North 

 Dakota. We selected this particular location because it was in 

 that locality where most of our trees will be planted. We selected 

 as sandy a tract as we could find. It would be more satisfac- 

 tory to me if we could have had some nice river bottom land, but 

 that would not be practicable, as these trees must be planted on 

 the grades where it is gravelly and dry. I raised about 80,000 

 trees last year and about 200,000 this year,. and we have been 

 buying a lot of seed and cuttings so that we expect to be able to 

 produce our own trees from now on at the very lowest cost 



I think I am up against a difficult proposition in tree plant- 

 ing as I have such dry land in which to plant them, but in case 

 I succeed under those conditions there is no reason why the 

 farmers should not succeed fully as well with their tree planting 

 at their homes where the conditions are favorable. One of the 

 things we hope to do is to encourage farmers to plant large groves 

 around their homes, and in that way they will help us to delay 

 the snow before it comes to the track. 



There is quite a little discussion in North Dakota about 

 planting long rows of trees along the right of way. President 

 Worst, of the N. D. Agricultural College, has been advocating that 



