20 The Farm Woodlot 



Even in the prairie districts (and with the prairies are 

 here grouped all the flat lands of fairly uniform quality), 

 there are patches of land, some large and some small, 

 which are poorly suited to cultivation and naturally sug- 

 gest themselves as woodlot locations. 



In the comparatively few cases in which the land is of 

 uniformly good quality throughout, the necessity for wind- 

 breaks may aid in the location of the woodlots. In all 

 the prairie sections this will be true, no matter what the 

 character of the land. The cold winds of winter and the 

 hot, drying winds of summer are now recognized as great 

 obstacles to successful farming in these exposed regions. 

 Homes are made uncomfortable, stock suffers and exces- 

 sive supplies of forage are made necessary by the bitterly 

 cold winds of winter. Soil moisture is evaporated, and, 

 in many cases, the immature crops are burned up in the 

 fields by the hot, dry winds of midsummer. Dry-farm- 

 ing methods and the selection of drought-resistant species 

 are far from successful. Windbreaks are an absolute 

 necessity. 



These harmful winds blow consistently in a definite 

 direction. Windbreaks should be placed at right angles to 

 them and at sufficiently close intervals to protect the inter- 

 vening spaces. These spaces should not much exceed a 

 quarter of a mile in width, as a windbreak cannot be 

 expected to extend its influence over a distance much 

 greater than ten times its height. A number of such 

 breaks would, however, prevent the formation of the 

 diurnal 1 winds which do so much of the damage. The 



1 Winds which rise with the sun each day and go down with it ; local 

 winds made possible by large unbroken areas of overheated surface. 



