274 NEED OF SCREENS OF TIMBER IN FRUIT-CULTURE. 



good condition, so that they would not kill. It was a mistake about 

 winter-killing; they should call it fall killing, for it was while the sjip 

 was descending in the fall that the mischief was done by the early frosts. 

 The judge related how he had kept a weeping willow from being winter- 

 killed, by stripping off all the leaves early in the fall. The wood then 

 had time to harden, and the frost had no effect upon it. 



In answer to some questions, the judge said that in places where land 

 was abundant and timber scarce, he should plant as large a wind-break 

 as possible, consisting of willow, Cottonwood, ash, black walnut, and box 

 elder. 



The question arising as to "how wid-e a wind-break should be planted 

 for an orchard," Mr. Perry Walker replied that he had 40 acres in 

 orchard, inclosed with hedge, and five rows of cottonwood on three 

 sides. There was no protection on the east side, and he did not think 

 best to plant rows of trees for protection through the orchard. 



Mr. Masters thought best to plant trees for a shelter among fruit trees, 

 and would prefer evergreens of tall-growing kinds. 



In the discussions of the Nebraska State Horticultural Society, the 

 subject of wind-breaks received attention at a late meeting, and the 

 opinion was expressed, that six rows of trees was sufiBcieut for 40 acres. 

 Mr. Barnard, of Pawnee County, stated that a wind break will protect 

 an orchard a rod for every foot of its height. He only wanted shelter 

 on the south side, or at most south and west. To surround an orchard 

 with a wind-break would be to restrict the sun and air to the injury of 

 the orchard, and especially the peach trees. Mr. Budlong, of Franklin 

 County, had planted two rows of white willow, which are 6 to 8 feet 

 high at two years' growth, and 12 feet apart. He had also planted four 

 rows of cottonwood, 16 feet apart, and four rows of black walnuts, the 

 same distance; on the east and west rows of willows, and on the north, 

 willow and black walnut. Professor Thompson thought that an old 

 orchard would protect itself, and that a young one would need protection 

 against the worst summer winds, the trees being 25 feet high, and belts 

 of such trees every ten rods. 



The protection afforded by a belt of trees or a hedge must depend, of 

 course, upon the nature of the surface, whether level or sloping, and 

 very much upon the prevailing course of the winds. In the valley of 

 the Rhone, I3ecquerel says " a simple hedge two meters in height is 

 adequate protection to a distance of 22 meters." ^ In Algeria it has been 

 proposed to plant shelter belts of trees at a distance of 100 meters apart. 



Mr. I. A. Lapham and associates, in their report on the disastrous 

 effects of the destruction of forest trees in Wisconsin (p. 19), mention 

 nursery belts in rows 25 to 30 feet high, in New Jersey, that increased 

 the yield of trees and adjacent farm crops 50 per cent, above that of 

 places not protected, and an English thorn hedge allowed to grow up 

 20 feet or more that sheltered and saved from winter-killing a crop of 

 wheat within its influence. 



Prof. R. C. Kedzie, in an article on the meteorology of Central Michi- 

 gan, ^ notices that the southwest winds are the most prevalent in that 

 region, as well as the coldest, and insists upon the importance of placing 

 timber belts on that side of the orchard, barn, and house, as a shield 

 against the cold storms from that quarter. The protection afforded by 

 large bodies of open water had been noticed in a cold storm, in which 

 the temperature of Grand Haven on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan 

 was 20° higher than at Milwaukee on the opposite side of the lake, 



' Becquerel, Des CUmats, &c., p. 116. 



* Michigan Board of Agriculture, 1865, p. 241. 



