134 Shelter- Belts : Planting along Eailroads. 



reach or power of injury, when they may be used for their shelter 

 in winter. 



544. The inside rows may be planted with black walnut, oak, ca- 

 talpa, ash, or other kinds of most value for timber; and when a 

 belt becomes old and thin, it would be better to cut it off, after 

 starting a new one under its shelter. The ground fertilized by the 

 decay of leaves for many years might be broken up and cultivated 

 for a time with great advantage. In older countries, the rules of 

 rotation in the culture of timber and of farm crops have been set- 

 tled by long practice, and the advantages from this are well under- 

 stood ; but in our country they are as yet unappreciated, and to a 

 great degree unknown. 



545., For a narrow, but effectual wind-break, a double row of 

 Scotch or white pine, in rows eight or ten feet apart, and at about 

 the same distance between the trees in the rows, will form, in six 

 or eight years, in a climate where they can be grown, a close and 

 effectual screen. 



Protection of Railroad Cuts from Drifting Snows by Tree-Planting. 



546. In no form of planting do shelter-belts show greater benefits 

 than along the deep cuts of railroads, in an open country liable to 

 deep snows. They should be planted, in these cases, upon both 

 sides of the road, but wider on that exposed to the most wind, 

 which will generally be the north or west sides. 



547. In preparing the soil for this planting upon new prairies, it 

 should be broken up in June, in strips a rod and a half to two 

 rods wide, parallel with the line of road and about seventy-five or 

 eighty feet from the center. The ground should be back-set by 

 plowing deeper in September or October, and again as deep as prac- 

 ticable as early in the spring following as may be. Immediately 

 after plowing, the ground should be harrowed, and set with cuttings, 

 or planted with seedlings, in lines from four to six feet apart, and 

 about a foot apart in the rows. In general, there should be four to 

 six rows on the side most exposed, and not less than three (but 

 better more) on the other side. 



548. In places particularly exposed to oblique winds along the 

 valleys, the plantation might widen out to advantage, forming a 

 grove of some extent. The kinds most certain in northern and 

 snowy region are the cottonwoods and willows. Where the soil and 



