Buchanan County bulletin. [volume] (Independence, Iowa) 1869-1891, 1878-12-27
Winter, Climate and Trees.

Forty-two winters | have spent in
Iowa leads me to believe that we ought
every fall to prepare for severe win
ter. Good, warm shelter for all our ami
mails, with plenty of cheap hay, corn
and oats. My old horse, Prince now
nearly thirty years old, does not eat his
corn as we'll as in former years, and |
ought to get him some meal. Last sum
mer | mixed meal and bran, with less
than half the feed of corn. | think
they done quite as well Prince is a
good horse yet, and with my care |
think will serve me ten years longer.
Occasionally we get one of those polar
winters; they come, and it is not safe
for us to calculate on anything less than
30 deg. below zero, and in the north
part of our State the cold sometimes
drives the mercury down to 40 deg.
Snow is a great comfort and protection
to the meadows and all plants. But
with the snow one to two feet deep
have seen semi hardy trees killed to the
inner line. We remember the 31st of
December and LIST of January, 1923,
that frozc our domestic animals to
death, even large cattle, out in improp-
err expOsure but not where the animals
were properly cared for. Stop all the
cracks in the stables, hog pens and hen
houses; you will be repaid in saving of
food.
At home they called me il weather
prophet: but no man can tell what the
coming winter will be- A good general
is always prepared for an attack |
think the climate of the Northwest is
more variable than that of the same lat
itude near the Atlantic coast. Cold air
is heavier than warm. and when the
wind gets fairly set to the northwest,
coming down over the snow clad regions
Of British America, it seems hard to
stop it-so cold that the stOutest of us
can feel it, and it strikes dread to the
timid and feeble.
Trees! trees! trees! are the best modi-
fers of climate Weather prophets and
philosophers tell us that trees bring rain
and snow. There are so many false
theories on this subject that I am in
clined to distrust them all Such as
s. in the Rocky Mountains timber grows
and the rain falls; but in the dry plains
this side, no trees and little rain" Let
us reverse this: Rain first fell on the
mountains, which enabled the trees to
grow. No tree can live without water.
Why don't the trees grow in the dry
plains and bring down the blessed rain
Salt Lake has risen FIVE feet because
the Mormons have planted so many
shade trees" And yet the probability
is that they have cut ten large trees on
the banks of the same same streams
that feed Salt Lake to one small tree
which they have planted, etc.
But | must confess that there appear
to be some good arguments in Europe
and Egypt that trees bring rain. But
in the open prairies Of Illinois and Iowa
the rainfall was was about the same as
that Of the densely timbered states to
the east Of us, anterior to the settle
ment or since.
Let US bring this work of tree plant
ing home to our own doors. If we
plant trees to bring rain, the showers
will be likely to fall on our neighbors;
but if we plant trees to stop wind. we
stop our own wind but not that of our
neighbors. Not only do we want the
force of the polar blasts of winter stop
ped, but the rushing winds of summer,
which damage our crops, etc.-not only
lay fiat our grass, grain and corn, and
break our apple trees and fences down,
but the drying winds add greatly to the
parching drouth.
What shall we plant? Plant willow
for wind breaks, because it it is so east
ly planted and will grow so quickly,
larch, black walnut, white ash, and
hardy catalpa. This last tree is easily
transplanted, a fast grower and most
desirable wood for posts and railroad
ties 1t has been known to last more
than fifty years in the ground. BE eau
tious about having imposed upon you
the common tender catalpa, for it will
winter-kill. -.Suel Foster IN Western
Stock Jou7mui