THE NATIONAL NURSERYMAN 
149 
to understand why twenty-five feet of the privet has withered, 
four shade trees have died entirely, not to mention the poor 
showing made by several of the evergreens and shrubs. 
Inasmuch as the stock was properly planted by an 
experienced man I feel that you should make good my loss, 
by replacing the aforementioned failures. 
I do not presume to know the specific reason for the 
failure of these trees and shrubs to ])roperly mature. How¬ 
ever, some of them are in excellent form and growing splen¬ 
didly. Therefore, the loss of the remainder, must either 
have been due to a poor selection or carelessness in packing. 
Trusting that you will readily see the logic in my claim and 
awaiting an early response I beg to remain. 
Yours very truly, 
A wholesale nurser^mian is not much concerned in the 
matter, so that it falls heaviest upon the retailer who comes 
in direct contact with the consiuner, and it is to be hoped 
that the matter will have consideration at the coming con¬ 
vention, and at least formulate a policy that will be adhered 
to by the trade at large. 
PROTECTION FROM WINDS 
J. W. Maher, Devil’s Lake, N. Y., in the Minnesota Horti¬ 
culturist gives a very interesting paper on the subjects of 
Protection from Winds. Eastern Nurserymen would likely 
pass the subject by as one of more vital interest to the West, 
crops not being so likely to suffer in the liunber belt as in the 
treeless plains of the West. Yet the Dutchmen in their 
country where it looks to the visitor as if there was never 
enough wind to make their windmills go round, shelter all 
their plantings by hedges and rows of trees and we admire the 
quality of the nursery stock they grow. In England an 
extremely moist country where plants would hardly seem 
likely to suffer from dry winds, shelter is one of the first 
considerations of all plantings either to make it or give it. 
Nurserymen often claim their stock is grown on bleak 
and exposed hillsides and supposedly hardier on that account; 
without questioning this claim which is open to doubt, there 
is no doubt better and more profitable stock can be grown in 
positions sheltered from the drying winds. Mr. Maher 
blames the wind for 
Distribution of Weed Seed. —Nature intended to take 
advantage of the winds to aid in the distribution of seeds, and 
for this reason equipped seeds with wings and other appen¬ 
dages to facilitate such distribution. Nature has also taken 
great precaution in the matter of producing enormous 
quantities of seeds. The number of seeds produced by some 
of our weeds is so great as to be almost beyond belief. Seeds 
are carried by wind, by water, by birds and beasts and men 
and by every other conceivable means. But the winds and 
the floods following our torrential rains are their special 
means of distribution on the plains. 
It matters not how clean of weeds your fields may be if the 
winter winds bring you wild oats and all the other common 
field weed seed gliding over the snow, and the summer winds 
bring you Canada thistle, the various milkweeds and the 
many other winged seeds and deposit them in your clean 
fields. 
A ten to twenty row closely planted shelter belt will arrest 
all of those moving seeds and make fertilizer of them. Its 
shade is too dense to pennit of their growing. 
Jack pine is found growing in the sand dunes at the south 
end of Lake Michigan. This is two to three hundred miles 
south of its natural habitat. The seed was undoubtedly 
blown over ice and snow the length of the lake. 
I repeat, make observ^ations and measurements and 
detennine the exact distance our windbreaks are effective and 
carefully note the destructive effect of winds and the amount 
of damage caused by them. 
Drifting of Soil caused by high winds is another source 
of great damage. Our one crop system of farming is burning 
the humus out of the soil, and it is disintegrating and reach¬ 
ing that state where it drifts easily and washes easily. The 
winds and waters help us gfeatly in extracting the fertility 
out of the soil. The humus and other most fertile elements 
are blown away and washed away. 
The same system of farming and neglect to protect the 
soil against drifting with the wind and washing away by 
water has rendered the New England states and great por¬ 
tions of the East and South barren. It behoves us to take 
inventory and see “Whither we are drifting.” 
Evaporation. —Scientists estimate that one thousand 
parts of water are required to produce one part of dry matter. 
Plants drink their food in dilute solutions. It is important 
that we do everything possible to conserve the water in the 
soil for plant growth. 
The greater the velocity of the wind, the greater the evap¬ 
oration. We must arrest the strong winds and reduce their 
high temperatures. That is what trees do. We may get 
light and assistance from the older countries. Germany has 
forty-five per cent of her total land area under the plow, 
and twenty-seven per cent of it under forestry. There is no 
censorship as to farm crops, but no one can cut down a tree 
unless he plants one to take its place. Germany supports 
sixty million people on an area smaller in size and less fertile 
than the two Dakotas and Montana. In the Po Valley, in 
Northern Italy, every field is surrounded by a row of trees. 
The fields will not average to exceed ten acres each. Land is 
worth from $200 per acre up. None of the fields are being 
enlarged, on the contrary the larger ones are being subdivided 
by rows of trees. 
When you bring in your reports there wll be many indict¬ 
ments against the winds. 
SUIT AGAINST STARK NURSERY AND ORCHARD 
COMPANY 
“Recently W. P. Stark of Neosho, Mo., filed suit against Stark 
Bros.’ Nursery and Orchard Company of Louisiana, Mo. The papers 
contain many allegations which the parent company state are mis¬ 
leading and untrue. 
As the National Nurserrman is not the proper place to air or 
discuss such matters, we prefer not to publish particulars, in deference 
to both parties for each of whom we have the greatest respect.” 
Topeka, Kansas, February 18 , 1913 . 
Nation.\l Nur.seryman Pub. Co., 
Kindly renew our subscription for the National Nurserym.^n. 
We cannot afford to do without it. Yours truly, 
L. R. Taylor & Sons. 
