Morris tribune., 1881-02-10
Trees for Wind Breaks.
ostAr in iowa Homestead

This is a favorable time to present this
subject to our farmers for the hundreth
time. We need line upon line, and pre-
cept and actual experience. am remind
ed of trees and wind breaks this morning,
with the thermometer 18 degrees below zero,
and this is the third day that it has been
continuously below zero, with a piercing
northwest wind most Of the time. Twelve
rods east of my house, as I 60 to town
emerge from behind my evergreens, and you
may imagine my feelings. I feel the north
wester, and I love the evergreens. Let US
open our hearts wide with gratitude to our
Heavenly Father for his infinite wisdom and
goodness, for storing our wilderness with
evergreens; and He has given US just wisdom
enough to learn by experience that trees
modify the rigor of cold ana heat, the
piercing winds of winter, and the parching,
dry winds of summer.
Many farmer when they see my ever
green's have said: 81 wish I had set some
years ago." Another says: IF I had set
wind break on the north and west of my
buildings when / commenced them, they
would have been 20 or 80 feet high now"
If they had raised one steer or four hogs
less for four years, and invested their value
in 100 evergreens, the cultivation and care
of them weuld have been amply repaid in
their beauty while growing from three feet
to thirty. Careful and prudent investment
and management is what we all want. Will
not this apply in setting wind-break of
evergreens?
But many will say, 1--WE have tried ever
green's and had no luck in making them
i've" Get our annual Horticultural Report,
published by authority of our State-a vol
ume containing $50 pages of the very in
struction you and your wife and sons and
daughters need and want every week, giving
instruction what to plant and how to raise
trees, fruits, and flowers.
Many of us nurserymen and farmers are
as sure of success In transplanting ever
green's as with apple trees and other trees.
What you want is to know how it is done,
and then what is more important is to do it.
1t requires more care in transplanting ever
green's than other trees. They must be
dug up with care to save as many roots as
possible; then the roots must be kept from
driving the least possible in carrying home
and getting out. Keep the roots covered
with wet straw, soil, or sod; and if the
ground is dry when setting out, pour in
water while filling in the soil on the roots,
and be sure the soil is pressed against the
roots underneath as well as on the roots.
Now there are other varieties of wood and
| woods-that the farmers must have, and it
| will be far better to raise it as home pro-
duct than to buy every stick that is wanted.
| The raising such trees will be more useful
as wind-breaks and live fence-posts than
their cost as timber to have it near by in
the grove just when and for whatever pur-
pose it is wanted. Set no more cotton
wood, and think we can do much better
than to set willow or soft maple. My con-
fdence in the hardly catalpa is increased
every year as I have more experience with
it. tits cheap and easy to raise; it is as
sure to live in transplanting as Usage, cot
tonwood, or willow; it is rapid of growth,
with me, equal to the soft maple; it is Won
derfully durable as post, as we have evil
dence of its lasting so to rs years. I am
quite sure the hardly catalpa is the best tree
for us to plant as far north as it will stand
our climate; and it has stood several win
tiers in Cedar, Linn, and Benton countie
and is being tried much further north.