100 WINDBREAKS. 



Of'species suitable for furnishing winter protection only the alli- 

 gator juniper and the piiion are sufficiently drought resistant to live 

 in the climate of the lower elevations. 



6. THE PACIFIC COAST. 



In California windbreaks have been principally used by fruit 

 growers for the protection of very valuable citrus orchards. There 

 can be no doubt as to the value of eucalypts, Monterey cypress, and 

 Monterey pine for this purpose, especially when located along the 

 north side of an orchard, to check the spring winds. 



Hardly less important in southern California is the protection of all 

 kinds of farm crops from the " Santa Ana" or dry north wind which 

 occasionally blows out of the mountains. It has entirely destroyed 

 a wheat crop in a day or two. The one thing that counts against 

 certain profit in the immense wheat fields of California is the very 

 fact of their unbroken immensity. There seems to be no good reason 

 why the development of eucalypt planting in California should not 

 also aim toward a thorough protective system for those fields, for 

 which east-west belts of moderate "width are recommended. Euca- 

 lypts grow rapidly and will for a number of years form a very dense 

 windbreak. Underplanting will not be found practicable. 



In Washington and Oregon winds blowing out of the mountains 

 are hardly less severe than the California "Santa Ana" in their effects 

 upon field crops and orchards. The protection of orchards against 

 winds carrying sand is, in the Columbia River Valley, to be obtained 

 by the use of poplars and willows, while the more extensive shelters 

 for grain fields may well consist of belts of Carolina poplar or cotton- 

 wood, to be handled under the same system as has been recommended 

 for the river bottoms of the Middle West. 



As a final word, it must be concluded that the right kind of a wind- 

 break in the right place is a source of profit and of comfort; on the 

 treeless plains of the Middle West it has no little esthetic value. What 

 prejudice exists against its use is based on two things : First, experience 

 with poorly-planned and poorly-planted windbreaks; second, a lack 

 of appreciation of the protection and profit which a windbreak affords. 



o 



