CHAPTER IV. 

 TREE-PLANTING ON PRAIRIES. 



The subject of tree-planting in this country naturally 

 divides itself under the two heads of prairie-planting and 

 forest-planting. The former relates to the limited planting 

 of trees on our prairies for ornament, protection, and use, 

 and the latter to the care and management of timber lands 

 and the planting of trees for profit from their growth. Our 

 people are very generally impressed with the importance 

 of prairie-planting for protection and ornament, but are 

 too prone to regard the care and management of timber 

 lands for the production of timber crops as a matter of 

 little concern and very impracticable. (The subject of 

 the regeneration of forests is treated in the chapter on 

 Forest-planting and Treatment.) 



PRAIRIE-PLANTING . 



Whatever the ulterior object of prairie-planting, the 

 subject of protection to the buildings, their occupants, 

 and the cattle in the field should always be first considered. 

 The crops in our Central States are most liable to injury 

 from the southwest wind of summer, which dries them 

 out, and the northwest wind of winter, which blows the 

 snow from the land, causing it to lose the snow water. It 

 also causes a loss of evaporation, which goes on even in 

 winter from the bare ground, and from exposed crops, 

 causing them to winter-kill. The same winds are also 



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