144 PRACTICAL ARBORICULTURE 



THE CONTROL OF WIND BY FOREST BELTS. 



"The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, 

 but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth." John iii : 8. 



Stagnation is death. Water is purified by pouring over rocks in mountain 

 streams, and by flowing rapidly in rivers. The ocean is always in motion 

 upon its surface, while numerous currents flow throughout its entire extent. 

 The atmosphere takes up the poisonous gases from every source and by con- 

 stant motion maintains its purity. 



Even if it were desirable to turn back the current of the Mississippi and 

 stop its onward flow, or to command the wind to be still, one would be as 

 impossible as the other ; but the current of the great river is controlled by a 

 system of levees, and made to flow in a regular channel, and just as well can 

 the force of the wind be regulated, and its damaging effects eliminated or 

 greatly modified if we will but make the effort. 



There is not a season which passes but we have numerous reports of great 

 damage done by wind ; uprooting isolated trees, breaking branches from those 

 of more brittle nature, shaking the fruit from orchard trees, scorching farm 

 crops by the hot breath of the sirocco in midsummer, freezing flocks of sheep 

 and herds of cattle upon the ranges in winter, blockading roads and railway 

 systems by snow drifts, carrying away large structures at times and tearing 

 buildings in twain in exposed localities. 



These occurrences are usually upon the prairies or plains and in regions 

 where the forests have been removed and but few trees remain, which being 

 unsupported by surrounding forests, give way before unusual blasts. 



While I am aware that storms frequently uproot trees which lie in their 

 paths, in certain forest locations, I am also acquainted with the conditions 

 existing in Mississippi and other states, especially in the South, where there 

 are thick forests having evidences of storms, with wide swaths of fallen timber 

 which were cleared by former "old hurricanes," as they are locally called. 



In these localities a shallow soil of sand is underlaid with a hard pan of 

 stiff clay, through which the pine roots fail to penetrate, the tap roots curling 

 about like a corkscrew on reaching the impenetrable hard pan. Few strong 

 lateral roots are formed to support the trees and the wind having great lever- 

 age, they are upturned by comparatively slight wind storms. 



Yet the fact still remains that the most devastating storms and those of 

 greatest frequency have their pathway in treeless regions, which also are 

 without mountain protection. 



