STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 4 108 
best returns. In our towns and cities we plant them to please the eye and add 
beauty to our grounds, and in our small yards we almost invariably put too 
many. Anxious to have something to show now, we either do not think of the 
years to come, when our trees will have become large, or we say to ourselves we 
will cut them out when they grow so as to crowd each other. But we don’t do 
it. Itseems a pity to cut out such beauties, and so we let our homes be dark- 
ened by a somber shade of thick evergreens within a few feet of our win- 
dows, or if at a late day we do cut away some, we delay it until the beauty of 
those remaining is much injured. But on our prairies and about our prairie 
homes we usually do just the reverse. Where there is room enough, and to 
spare, where the winds have unobstructed course for miles, and sweep with ter- 
rible force, evergreens are comparatively rare. I know how much the settler on 
the prairie has to do, and how little he generally has to do with, for the first 
few years, and I also know that if he only realized the great difference between 
a sheltered farm and home, and one exposed to the pitiless pelting of every 
storm and gale that blows, he would make great effort to shield himself and all 
that belongs to him from our tireless winds. 
Without protection, on the highest roll of his farm, stand the buildings, 
scorching in the summer sun and shivering in the winter storm. Or it, as lam 
glad to say, is often done, deciduous trees are planted to add beauty to the 
home, yet the leafless branches with the winter’s wind moaning through them, 
only seem to be a mere suggestion of what might be. The snow still piles in huge 
drifts about the door and almost blocks the way tothe barn where the cattle stand 
shivering and so shrinking from the cold blasts that they can hardly be drivei. into 
the yard or to the well for water. Everythmg is uncomfortable, and even when 
the weather is not cold, the winds are so persistent and searching, so long con- 
tinued, they tire out man and beast. Every dweller on the prairie knows, bet-_ 
ter than it can be told, of those great discomforts which arise solely from our 
frequent and long continued winds. They are so great that if there is a grove 
of however poor kind, on the farm, and in however inconvenient a place, many 
will build there rather than in a spot which, if sheltered, would be vastly bet- 
ter. We camnot escape the discomforts of the praine entirely. They are a part 
of the price we pay for our fertile, easily cultivated farms. But there is surely 
no need of living twenty years exposed to every wind that sweeps over the 
plains. I know one great objection to the planting of evergreens has been the 
high cost. They have been considered an expensive luxury, and indeed they 
have been. Brought largely from other states, a few years ago, sold at high 
prices, carelessly handled and in a short time a large proportion showing only 
dry branches for the money and time invested. people became tired of trying 
and very likely thought they could not be made to flourish. But with all kinds 
as low as they can now be had by the guantity from reliable men, almost at our 
own doors, and the fact demonstrated that, so far from being difficult to make 
live they are quite as certainly transplanted with success, as deciduous trees, it 
would seem as if every one who owns a home or a claim might surround not 
only his house, but his farm, with an evergreen windbreak. One row of Nor- 
way. Spruce or Scotch pines, set five feet apart, will in a few years make a wall 
so thick a bird can hardly fly through it. One row is better than two rows set 
near together, because with the two rows light and air are kept from three sides 
of each tree, and they really, I think, make no better protection than one row 
with its two sides of every tree rendered hardy by exposure to sun and air. Of 
