CHAPTER XV 

 GROWING TREES AND FRUITS IN DRY AREAS 



The absence of trees on the prairie and bench lands 

 of the west gives to it something of the appearance of a 

 land that may not be inhabited, in the sense that it will 

 become a land of permanent homes. There is a lone- 

 some look about it that does not attract, and in the win- 

 ter season the lack of trees around the dwelling certainly 

 adds much to the discomfort of its inmates. The apathy 

 shown by many of the dwellers on the prairies in areas 

 where farm crops have been grown for several years is 

 in a sense almost unexplainable. Many dwellings may 

 be found on northwestern prairies where the farms on 

 which they stand have been cultivated for a score of 

 years, and yet not a single tree or shrub has been planted 

 on the farm during all that time. This course, which 

 is greatly to be deplored, may arise, in many instances, 

 from the too commonly cherished view that the farmer 

 will get all he can for a term of years from the land which 

 he tills, and he will then remove to other lands which he 

 regards as more congenial. 



Can trees and fruits be grown. The answer to this 

 question is of great moment to those who dwell on the 

 newly occupied lands of the dry area and also to those 

 who are seeking homes on the same. On the answer will 

 depend the permanency of the farming in much of the 

 dry area, for one cannot imagine indefinite continuity in 

 the tilling of the soil in an exposed country in the entire 

 absence of trees. But why should the ability to grow 

 trees be doubted? For the same reason that the success- 

 ful tillage of the soil was doubted for many years. The 

 fact had not been demonstrated, just as the fact has not 

 been demonstrated on wide areas in the dry region as to 

 whether trees can be grown. On the dry bench lands 



