WINDBREAKS: THEIR INFLUENCE AND VALUE. 



PART I. 



A SYNOPSIS OF CONDITIONS. 

 PURPOSE OF THE STUDY. 



When the early settlers in the Middle Western States planted trees 

 so extensively they did so with a distinct object in view to build up 

 a natural barrier against the winds which then swept unimpeded 

 across the plains, doing immense damage to their crops, intensifying 

 the effects of both hot and cold weather upon their stock, and making 

 their homes almost uninhabitable. The attitude of many of the 

 present-day farmers, however, and especially the younger men who 

 have never experienced the rigors that characterized earlier days, is 

 quite changed. There is a common indifference to timber culture, 

 and although there has been of late years considerable interest 

 throughout the West in commercial plantations, there is no such 

 extensive windbreak planting as formerly. On the contrary, there 

 is a revulsion of feeling; an idea that all but the most productive 

 tracts of planted timber should be done away with and their place 

 taken by crops which will bring quick money returns. The State of 

 Kansas, once the prey of winds, has placed itself on record as opposed 

 to the maintenance of efficient hedge windbreaks along roadsides. 1 

 There has also been a great deal said to disfavor cottonwood. The 

 general observations upon which these prejudices are based are likely 

 to be misleading, and their inaccuracy and unreliability are con- 

 vincingly shown by the figures obtained through careful study, which 

 prove that cottonwood is the least damaging of all the hardwood 

 trees in its relation to field crops. Yet the common opinion is that 

 it is the most so. 



There is obviously much basis for the belief that forest plantations 

 do not yield as great a revenue from the direct forest products as 

 annual crops wouid on the same land. The fault, however, lies quite 

 as much with the owners of the timber as with the trees themselves ; 

 for, while much progress has been made toward improved and more 

 intensive methods of crop management, little has been done to 

 increase the productiveness of the grove or belt of trees. Occasionally 

 the farmer goes in with an ax to take out a tree for fuel, to obtain a 



1 General Statutes of Kansas, 1901, sees. 3116-3118, provide that all hedge fences along the public high- 

 way shall be cut and trimmed to not more than 5 feet high, except when protecting orchards, vineyards, 

 and feed lots. The adoption of this statute is left to popular vote in each county. 



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