22 The Farm Woodlot 



The woodlot should not be used as a pasture. No 

 farmer would pasture his wheat crop ; why then should he 

 pasture a crop that is even more valuable? If shade is 

 needed in the pasture, let him plant some good shade trees 

 there and fence them off until they are large enough to 

 take care of themselves. If the trees are taken care of, 

 they will be worth a great deal ; if they are injured by 

 grazing animals, they will be worth much less. The 

 value of such pasturage is comparatively nothing. 



The woodlot should be located on the poorest land on the 

 farm. The quality of the soil is very important in the 

 production of grain crops; for the growth of trees it is 

 unimportant. In this respect many of the woodlots in 

 the East are now poorly located. In the original clearing 

 of the farms very little attention was paid to the quality 

 of the soil, and the woodlot was often left on the most 

 fertile part of the farm. On the ' prairies the plantings 

 should be so located as to furnish the best protection to 

 the cultivated crops, the stockyards and the homestead. 



Heretofore, the idea of protection has been too much 

 restricted to the homestead. This is important in increas- 

 ing the comfort of the home, but the protection of the 

 crops is far more important from the financial viewpoint. 

 The increase in yield within the influence of the wind- 

 break will often exceed 50 per cent. It is often objected 

 that such a break destroys the fertility of the adjoining 

 field for a rod on either side of it. This objection is 

 easily overruled when we stop to consider that an in- 

 creased yield of 10 per cent in the area influenced by a 

 thirty-five-foot break will compensate for a total loss on a 

 two-rod strip next to the break. Moreover, there is 



