46 



Canadian Forestry Journal, Mar.-Apr., 1912. 



keep the moisture from escaping. Cultiva- 

 tion (luring the suniuier to loosen the surface 

 soil anil destroy weeds uuist ah\ay.s be 

 done. 



Cultivation of the Trees. 



After the trees are jilanted, they should 

 at once lie cultivated to loosen the soil and 

 keep in the moisture. This is a matter that 

 is often neglected and the trees suffer. It 

 does not take long to do, and it pays well, 

 for often one fin<ls a ])lantation doing pro- 

 bably well enough, l»ut )iot nearly so well as 

 that of a neighbor's under precisely s-imilar 

 conditions, even to the number of times the 

 cultivator was ufed, the only difference be- 

 tween them being that oue was cultivated 

 at the right time and the- other was not. 



In Other Parts of Alberta. 



AVith the country to the east — the 'dry- 

 farming' countrv — there need be no difficul- 

 ty about tree-growing, for the same methods 

 of preparation and treatment found so suc- 

 cessful in SaskatchcAvan and Manitoba are 

 just as successful here, and there is no 

 more risk of damage from frost-hurt (in- 

 deed, probably less) than in some of the dis- 

 tricts toward the north of these two pro- 

 vinces. 



The growing of trees in the other parts of 

 Alberta (i.e., north and east of the Chinook 

 country) does not differ materially from 

 what has been said about the south. The 

 winters are steady and the drying effects 

 of the winds are not so apparent, but the 

 same cultivation and preparation previous 

 to planting are just as neresfary as farther 

 south. 



Arranging the Plantation. 



The liest way to arrange the plantations 

 wonM be to plant, say, three belts, running 

 north and south across the farm, one on the 

 extreuie we^t, and the other two one-third 

 and two-thirds of the way across, respec- 

 tively. The^e would ^oon furnish shelter 

 enough for all purposes, and when such a 

 movement co'i.es to l)e universally taken np, 

 there will 1 e quite a change in the appear- 

 ance of Alberta's prairies, as well as in 

 some of the cliiuatic con<litions of the coun- 

 try. An alternative arrangement would be 

 to plant similar belts all around the fields, 

 but, as the jirevailing Avinds in Southern Al- 

 berta are from the west southwest, pro- 

 bablv the north and south strips would be 

 best.' 



In order that they may be established and 

 maintained economically, the plantations 

 woulil require to be about twenty-two yards 

 wide and the t!-ees three feet apart. This 

 seems clofe planting, but it would mean at 

 least one year less cultivating — a matter 

 of some importance to a busy farmer. Trees 

 at three feet apart usually require only two 

 years cultivation, while those at four feet 

 take three vears and sometimes more. 



The cost need not be excessive. A few 

 thousand cuttings of Eussian poplar and 

 willow and a thousand Cottonwood trees 

 (these to be used as a supply nursery from 

 which to get cuttings for the plantations) 

 and aliout two thousand maple, ash and elm 

 seedlings every year would be sufficient to 

 plant an acre, at 4,840 trees to the acre. 



Planting can be done at the rate of one 

 thousand trees per day per man, working 

 with a spade, so that two men could finish 

 an acre in about two and a half days. The 

 poplars, cottonwoods and willows would 

 speedily reach a good height and furnish a 

 great deal of shelter, which could not fail to 

 benefit the land to the eastward of them, 

 while the maples would maintain the neces- 

 sary ground shade and incidentally develop 

 into i:)oles. 



Tree-planting has a gieat future in Al- 

 Ijerta. It is a country of very recent settle- 

 ment and there is consequently very little 

 soil drift at present. But it is also a coun- 

 try of much wind — much worse than its 

 neighbors to the east — and in a very few 

 years the farmers of Alberta will be face 

 to face with the problem many of the farm- 

 ers of Saskatchewan are facing now, viz., 

 'How to prevent the drifting of the soil', 

 only in a more accentuated form. The 

 growing of winter wheat will help to some 

 extent, but the only sure and safe way is 

 for each farmer to protect his own farm by 

 planting trees. 



This wholesale planting may appear a 

 little premature, but it is not. No one will 

 cjuestion the need of it and we know now 

 what trees will grow and the best way to 

 ."^et about growing them. There are plenty 

 of farmers now in the country prosperous 

 enough to stand the little extra time neces- 

 sary to prepare and maintain an acre or 

 two of trees. If such plantations are ever 

 undertaken (and they will be some day) they 

 must just be figured on as part of the year's 

 work on the farm, and attended to system- 

 atically like everything ebe; otherwise they 

 had far better be left alone. 



Three four-rod belts across the fields would 

 come to about tv^elve acres per quarter- 

 section, and a plantation of similar width 

 all around would be sixteen acres — not a 

 very large area, and certainly not too much 

 if the country is to have its proper comple- 

 ment of trees. Such plantations would ans- 

 wer, to some extent, the fuel question, which 

 is just as likely, in some hard winter in the 

 future, to becom.e acute as it has in past sea- . 

 sons of that character. Moreover, if mixed 

 farming is to become the system followed 

 in the west (and no one can doubt that it 

 will come sooner or later) such belts of trees 

 will be of the greatest use in sheltering the 

 stock. Work for the hired men iu the win- 

 ter, too, is a pressing problem which the 

 thinning of the woods and the cutting up 

 of the cordwood will help to solve in the 

 vears to come. 



