84 



PKACTICAL FOKESTRY. 



a rule^ should be kept separate and not intermingled as 

 they are often found in a state of nature. Of course 

 many kinds and varieties may be employed in forming 

 belts^ groups, or forests, and still each be placed in 

 separate rows, squares, or clumps, but this system may 

 be varied in case some small and less vigorous species are 

 needed to fill in among the larger ones in order to give 

 compactness to a plantation intended mainly as a screen 

 or wind-break. 



The object in keeping each species separate is to avoid 

 giving any one an advantage over its neighbor, which is 

 certain to follow intermingling of different species. It 

 may answer in some cases to intermingle several different 

 species of the oak, maple, and similar trees, still, we 

 seldom find that the different species of oak or maple, do 

 equally well on the same kind of soil, and for this reason 

 it is best to keep them separate in our cultivated planta- 

 tions, in order that we may the more readily determine 

 which is best adapted to the soil and climate. Evergreen 

 trees are superior to deciduous for screens and wind- 

 breaks, but more difficult to raise on the prairies because 

 of the exposure of their leaves to drying cold winds in 

 winter. But by selecting those species that are indig- 

 enous to similar soils and climates, and then by giving 

 protection in winter until the trees become well estab- 

 lished, I am inclined to believe that a very fair variety of 

 evergreen trees may be made to thrive in almost any 

 locality where deciduous trees will grow. It will not be 

 necessary to obtain trees from extreme northern latitudes 

 in order to find species that will succeed in Minnesota, 

 Nebraska, or further South or West, because it is not so 

 much the low temperature that destroys them, as it is 

 exposure to cold drying winds. For instance, in my 

 grounds I have three large American hollies planted 

 some fifteen years ago, one of these trees is protected on 

 the north-west side by a small clump of American arbor- 



