TREE PLANTING NEEDED IN TEXAS. 13 



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arrangement. The belt and grove types, since they are denser, are more 

 efficient than single rows of trees. Four parallel rows make an excel- 

 lent windbreak. Several rows of shrubs planted on the windward side 

 of the main windbreak will further increase its efficiency by deflecting 

 air currents upward before they reach the tree?. If the windbreak is 

 composed of hardwoods it may be made denser by underplanting with 

 conifers or shrubs. A belt type of windbreak composed of three rows 

 of shrubs and four rows of trees, spaced three feet and eight feet, re- 

 spectively, would be thirty-three feet wide and were the windbreak one- 

 half mile long the total area occupied would be two acres. 



The location of the windbreak should, in all cases, depend on the 

 arangement of the crop areas, the direction of the prevailing winds and 

 the topography of the area to be protected. Locate the -windbreak on 

 the windward side of crop areas and at right angles, or nearly so, to 

 the prevailing winds. The windbreak should always be on the higher 

 elevations and never in the bottoms. In this State, since southwest 

 winds prevail in those sections where shelterbelts are most needed, the 

 planting should generally be made along the south and west boundaries 

 of the farm. If the area to be protected is a large one it may be ad- 

 visable to plant cross belts inside the boundaries to supplement the 

 main windbreaks. Single rows of trees may be planted for cross belts, 

 but in all cases, in this State, the belts should be laid out east and west 

 to reduce shading and secure maximum protection. Because of the 

 zone of relatively still air currents to leeward of a windbreak it should 

 not be located within one hundred feet of the buildings. 



Hedgerows are not a substitute for windbreaks or shelterbelts. They 

 provide shelter from insects and rodents and because of their relatively 

 low height the expense of planting is out of all proportion to the pro- 

 tection afforded. Finally, their heavy root system, due to the unbroken 

 line of vegetation, saps the soil of food material which the crop plants 

 need. 



FENCE POSTS AND FUEL. 



Over the greater portion of Texas every farmer should be concerned 

 with the problem of growing at least part of his home wood supply. 

 Vast areas are practically treeless. Thirty-two counties in West and 

 Northwest Texas with a total area or 22,550,000 acres have 62 per cent 

 of their area in improved and unimproved farms, but only a little more 

 than three-fifths of 1 per cent (8,532 acres) of the farm land is wooded. 

 The United States Forest Service* estimates that 2,500,000 acres in the 

 prairie and plains sections of Texas should be devoted to woodlot plant- 

 ing in order to preserve the balance between woodland and farm. Eight 

 Panhandle counties in which approximately 100 per cent of the entire 

 area (5,100,000 acres) is farm land are wooded to the extent of less 

 than seven one-hundredths of 1 per cent (3,468 acres) of their entire 

 area. That wooded areas do not interfere with the best agricultural 

 development is shown in the Black Prairie section of the State, where 



*Year book of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, 1909. 



