22 EVERGREENS. 



ideal place where they could be raised by the million. I once 

 planted 2,000 two-year-olds. They looked insignificant enough, 

 but I failed to find a dead one in the whole lot. So with Pun- 

 gens and Engelman, raise them where they grow naturally. I 

 know scores of rich valleys in the Rockies wnere seedlings 

 could be raised by the ton for I have dug them by the thous- 

 ands there. And nature will do better, assisted by art. There 

 are sections where they do well elsewhere. 



Tfne Pcreen: This Is a sort of artificial forest to give, if 

 possible, the conditions of nature out on the prairies. This was 

 devised by Robert Douglas, the father of the modern system 

 of Evergreen growing. He told me of his experience. He first 

 bought a bushel of White Pine seed. They were carefully 

 sown and came up beautifully. The beds were fairly green with 

 them". Then came a heavy thunder storm with a deluge of 

 rain. Then the bright sun came out, and his little trees were 

 mowed down with the damps. Then he thought "I must have 

 forest conditions." so he devised the screen. He covered acres, 

 putting up posts and then cross pieces covering with brush. 

 In this way he raised them by the millions and gave .an im- 

 petus to the business by showing others how to do it. 



While living in western Nebraska, I had half an acre of 

 screen. I put up poles, 8 feet apart each way, strips of corn- 

 cribbing 1x4 inches were nailed to the tops of the posts, so 

 they would be four feet apart. Growing on the river bottom 

 were large groves of fine, straight willows about eight or nine 

 feet tall. These were cut, bound in bundles, placed on these 

 cross joists and fastened on with binding twine or baling wire. 

 This made a good covering. In somie respects it was better 

 than lath, for the drip from the rains was not so heavy. In 

 building a screen always have your lath or brush run north 

 and south, for if you have them east or west, the sun will 

 strike through the same cracks all day and some of your plants 

 will be in the shade all the time and some in the sun. There 

 is one trouble with a: permanent screen of this kind. After a 

 year or two a fungus seems to creep in, and there is a black 

 cut-wormi that works fearful havoc, mowing down whole beds 

 in a short time. Tou need a lot of toads to take care of them, 

 and then you will have to furnish wings for your toads, for the 

 great lubberly fellows will crush down your little plants. A 

 good way is to sow lettuce and then poison that. The worms 

 will leave the trees for this. 



The Tall or Low; Screen: Tour tall screen should be 7 feet 

 high, so tha.t you can walk under it without any 

 trouble. I have always had the best success 

 with the low screen. Build a pen 8x32 feet, about 

 eighteen inches high. Run a cross piece through the center 

 lengthwise to catch the ends of your lath squares, which we 



