TREES AND FRUIT IN NORTH DAKOTA 



BY C. B. WALDRON. 



The day of exploitation in North Dakota is rapidly passing 

 and that of home building has taken its place. It is probable thai 

 no equal population has a larger proportion of home owncra 

 than has North Dakota. This fact coupled with the important 

 one that there is greater wealth per capita in North Dakota 

 than in any other state gives such conditions as should make 

 possible a class of homes characterized by their comfort and at- 

 tractiveness. 



Since the earliest days of man trees have been considered a 

 natural and fitting adornment and shelter for his home. In 

 forests primitive man found his first shelter and protection. 

 Trees were his necessity then and the race can never rid itself 

 of the instincts developed through the long ages of its evolution. 

 We may admire the great expanse of prairie stretching away 

 to the horizon, as we do the boundless ocean, but that does not 

 inmply that it includes the conditions making the most desirable 

 homes. With the home are naturally associated the ideas of in- 

 dividuality, of snugness and, to a certain extent, seclusion, none 

 of which can be attained if the place seems a part of the public 

 domain. 



In a region, too, like that of North Dakota, where the winds 

 have fairly earned a reputation for strength and persistence, trees 

 have a use as well as beauty. Passing from the shelter of the 

 forest to open country on a cold windy day .one is made aware 

 of all the difference between comfort and misery. 



These facts are admitted by everyone, even by those that 

 can offer no excuse for the bare dreariness and desolation that 

 characterize the places where their lives are spent. To spend a 

 lifetime without the presence of a single natural object about which 

 the affections and memories can center, should not be an aluring 



