The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-04-29
FARM AND HOUSEHOLD.

HALF HARDY TREES AND WIND
SHELTER.-Every once in while we
come across a statement that this tree or
that is not hardy. There is no doubt
that so far as temperature is concerned,
the trees referred to will stand all the
cold they are likely to meet with in the
regions referred to, but still the trees die.
1t may be as as we'll to remind our
friends who lose their trees, that it is not
so much frost as wind which destroys
them. Death is the result of the whip
ping out of the juices of the tree, and
not by the freezing of its cells. And it
is no proof that because tree dies in an
exposed windy place, that cit is not
hardy" in the deponent's latitude. That
trees die under different circumstances,
where they were thought hardy, is no
wonder to those who are familiar with
trees. Indeed, it is rather wonder that
so many live that do.
Generally it is the tree nature to be
gregarious. They grow up in forests
thousands together, and by mutual pro-
lection hardly know what wind is. The
falling leaves protect the young plants,
80 that in the severest winters days, one
may go into a dense wood and hardly
find frost an inch below the surface. So
that trees growing in woods have a
double chance. They are kept from
severe waste of their juices by their
mutual protection from wind; and the
roots, without much hindrance from
frosty ground, draw in moisture all the
winter through, and thus easily supply
what little waste there may be.
How different is this from trees
usual fate. Set out alone, to battle with
the winds unaided, and with the frost en-
casing every root, 80 that all the moisture
they can take up has to be first thawed
by their own internal heat from the
frozen ground, why should not large
numbers perishf 1t is not in the nature
of things to be otherwise, and it shows
rather a limited acquaintance with
plant life when the loss occasions any
surprise.
But there is not place in the whole
country but might do well. The coolest
place on the bleakest Western prairie, by
thick planting of the valuable trees, and
planting Of shelter belts of larches or
other wind proof trees, might have every
thing we have-everything we call half
hardy-everything in fact that any
reasonable horticulturist could wish.
To be sure, much has been done in this
direction in the West. The agricultural
papers and agricultural writers have
written over and over again as to the
necessity of shelter belts before much
can be done but when we read, as we
continually do, ofexperiments with these
trees or those, and the conclusions come
to, that "they are not hardy West"
when we know it is all matter of wind
and not of frost, we see how much more
is to be done in pushing a knowledge Of
the shelter idea, before those regions can
half enjoy the full pleasure of Horticul-
ture and it is in the hope Of reinforce
ing our Western friends, who have
labored so long in this field, that we have
been moved to pen this article.
MORE CLovER.-Very few men are
aware of the amount of soil washed away
every year in this section of the country.
IF we keep on with this kind of farming
many farmers will have to do as they
are now doing in the Eastern States, and
put guano, ashes, plaster, superphos-
pilates of lime in every hill Of corn.
Farmers! you should stop some of this
waste don't think of leaving nothing
but the yellow clay for future genera
tons.
But there is a remedy for all this waste (;
SOW more clover. Keep the ground
filed with roots or vegetable matter,
then 1t can't get away so easy. Plow up
clover sod for corn or wheat, and be
sure to have clover in the rotation of
crops.
Sow in February or March, but bear
in mind next summer you can NOW a
big crop of hay from that piece Of
ground, and remember that it is getting
richer.
Make calculations to seed another part
of the farm next year, and in a short
time you can have two-year old clover
sod to plant corn on; then look out for
fine corn, big ears, big yield, grown with
half the labor that you now grow corn
on those WORKOUT fields that have been
in constant use for corn and, wheat for
twenty-five or thirty years This is the
best country for clover ever saw. The
farmers east of this State don't pretend
to get along without sowing clover, and
to make the clover grow they use plaster