84 HEDGES, WINDBREAKS, SHELTERS, ETC. 



thirty-two feet further in a row of white pine; and 

 thirty-two feet in further a row of white spruce, 

 Black Hill spruce, or silver spruce. Set evergreens 

 twelve feet apart in rows alternate ; willows and cot- 

 tonwood four feet apart in rows. All trees should 

 be planted on ground in high tilth. It should be 

 given all summer annual cultivation, and mulch each 

 fall for over winter. Continue cultivation until you 

 cannot get through, then seed to clover, where it will 

 grow. Evergreens ten to fifteen inches high, that 

 have been transplanted, are best to use. A grove of 

 all Northern red cedar makes the best grove for high 

 dry prairie soil. Do not let evergreen trees lay 

 around exposed to dry air or winds when planted. 

 Do not water them, but cultivate and hoe them the 

 same as the best garden crop." I agree with most 

 of this so thoroughly that I give it in full. I do not, 

 however, assent to the position that it is best to plant 

 small evergreens ten to fifteen inches high. It is 

 more than can be asked of most farmers to wait for 

 the development of such trees to become good wind- 

 breaks. I should set, by all means, trees four or five 

 feet high, provided they can be obtained. As for 

 watering trees, I have already suggested that they 

 should be thoroughly watered, but it is understood 

 by good cultivators that hoeing a plant is equivalent 

 to watering it. At all events do not let an evergreen 

 even approach dryness of the roots. 



Among deciduous trees and shrubs the willow 

 is quite as good in the East as in the West. The 

 cottonwood is not procurable or usable in most of 

 the Eastern states. Both of these trees prefer moist 

 soil. I have seen some admirable windbreaks made 



