CHAPTER IV. 
TREE PLANTING ON PRAIRIES. 
The subject of tree planting in this section 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 orna- 
ment, 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 regen- 
eration 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. Our crops in this sec- 
tion are most liable to injury from the southwest wind of sum- 
mer, 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 the most uncom- 
fortable to the occupants of farm buildings, and are most likely to 
cause dust storms, which should be especially guarded against. 
Windbreak is a general name given to anything that gives 
protection from wind. On the prairies it is often applied to a 
single row of trees planted for protection. 
Shelterbelt is a term more often used to signify several or 
a large number of rows of trees, but the term is often used inter- 
changeably with windbreak. 
Grove is a term that refers to comparatively large bodies 
of trees which may be planted for shelter, fuel or other purposes. 
