442 



Canadian Forestry Journal, November, 1919 



WHAT TREE PLANTING DOES FOR PRAIRIE 



FARMERS 



B^ Norman M. Ross, B.S.A., B.F., 

 Chief of the Tree-Planting Division, Indian Head, Sas^. 



GROWING WINDBREAKS ON THE PRAIRIES. 

 Scotch Pine Plantation twelve years old. Dominion Forest Nursery Station, 



The system under which the settlers of the 

 prairies of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Al- 

 berta are assisted by the Forestry Branch of the 

 Department of the Interior has now been in 

 operation since the spring of 1901. Under this 

 system any settler can secure from the For- 

 estry Branch nurseries sufficient quantities of 

 hardy trees suited for prairie conditions to es- 

 tablish practical shelter-belts around his farm 

 buildings and gardens. These trees are fur- 

 nished free of charge. All the settler has to 

 do is to properly summer-fallow the ground he 

 wishes to plant the trees on and to agree to 

 plant and care for the tree belts as instructed. 

 Up to the present time 53,142,425 seedlings 

 and cuttings have been supplied to farmers. 

 The average distribution for the past five sea- 

 sons has been 4,922,615 per year and the aver- 

 age number of individual shipments practically 

 the number of farmers to whom trees are sent) 

 per year during the same period has been 4,405. 

 The species sent out in this way are: Manitoba 

 maple, green ash, caragana, Russian poplar and 

 Russian willow. 



In addition to these broad-leaved species 

 evergreen conifers of Scotch pine, jack pine. 



lodgepole pine, and white spruce have been sent 

 out in limited numbers since the spring of 1912. 

 These evergreens are sold at a nominal charge 

 of $1 per 100, which covers the cost of grow- 

 ing and handling in the nursery. Of these ever- 

 greens 933,000 have been distributed, 140,000 

 being about the annual distribution at the pres- 

 ent time. The evergreens appear to be par- 

 ticularly adapted to withstand the severe con- 

 ditions of the prairies, and, when once establish- 

 ed, will withstand periods of drought and heat 

 that are often fatal to the broad-leaved species. 

 The stock supplied for the planting is all 

 grown on the Forestry Branch nurseries at In- 

 dian Head, Saskatchewan, and Sutherland, Sas- 

 katchewan, and is raised entirely from seed col- 

 lected in the west. Maple and ash seed is 

 secured in the Qu'Appelle valley, Saskatchewan, 

 or in the neighborhood of Portage la Prairie, in 

 Manitoba. The spruce and pine seed is col- 

 lected on the Dominion forest reserves in Mani- 

 toba and Saskatchewan. Scotch pine planted 

 on the Indian Head Nursery in 1906 has been 

 bearing fair crops of cones since 1916 and a 

 sufficient supply of good seed is now obtainable 

 from locally grown trees. The Russian poplars 



