458 BLACKHAWK COUNTY, IOWA. 



this fence is not trimmed, it is useless as a fence, and shades 

 and takes two rods of land on each side of the trees. There- 

 fore I consider it a nuisance, except on the north side of a pas- 

 ture, for shelter for stock in the Fall, or for shade in the Sum- 

 mer. Arbor Vitse makes a nice ornamental hedge for door- 

 yard or for screens. 



GROVES. 



Sixteen years ago, after raising one crop of wheat to pay 

 for the land, I planted a grove of five acres around my orchard 

 and yards, for two purposes ; one was for protection, the other 

 was fuel. I succeeded in both. I planted the grove with soft 

 maple, mixed with white ash, oak, chestnut, timber locust, 

 black and white walnut, sixteen feet each way. After five 

 years the soft maple died out, from being poisoned by the white 

 walnut. They will not grow together. They did not die 

 in debt, however, as they furnished me with firewood three 

 years. Now I have a beautiful grove of white walnuts and 

 the pther varieties. Inside of this grove my orchard and yards 

 are protected by six to twelve rows of arbor vitse and red 

 cedar, ei^ht feet apart, alternately, which are twenty to twenty- 

 five feet high, and large enough for posts, affording a wind- 

 break, we can not look or even go through it. 



TREE PROTECTION. 



This is what I call protection to man and beast, as man is 

 not troubled with snow, and sheep and cattle chew their cud 

 and sun themselves at pleasure. Every farmer ought to have 

 it, for the cost is nothing compared to its comfort, when we have 

 the Manitoba wave booming down upon us at the rate of 2:40. 

 I have other groves of soft maple and ash, from which I have 

 had my firewood for the last ten years, with plenty to spare, 

 while some of my neighbors are burnmg corn. I also have a 

 grove of two acres of walnut, and two acres of white pine and 

 larch, which is the best, and admired by all who see it. It is 

 planted north and west of a little creek, to keep away the snows 

 in Winter, so that cattle can drink at all times. My one, two 

 and three year old plants were pulled up in the forest at 



