The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1897-09-21
PROFITS OF TREE RAISING.
Barrett Tells How Prairie
Farms should Be Improved.

Two-thirds. if not three-quarters, of he
prairie farms are destitute of the necessary
trees. The most of them have but a few
rows around the buildings, simply for shade
and protection against peiting winds; Others
have groves. very seldom reaching ten acres,
except on timber claims, and these, from
sheer neglect, living at d poor dying rate
Evidently but a small minority of farmers
appreciate the fact that forestry is indispen-
sible to successful agriculture. The farmer
who has studied their Importance no more
thinks OF farming without trees to Shelter-his
crops than TO raise stock without barns to
protect it. Well he knows that the natural
fertility of soil originally came from the for
est. His main fertilizer, OUTSIDE of the barn
offal, is the green manure of legumlnous
plants. whose heterogeneous properties they
largely extract from the air. This use of an
agricultural product is but an imitation of
natures art of making and replenishing the
soil with green and ripened leaves that form
a perfect mulch, conserving moisture and
feeding the roots of, all pants. The properly
watered roots absorb and reconstruct the pri-
mates of the mineral kingdom, transforming
them into living tissue, whose leave-breath-
ing organs appropriate the carbon and turn
the oxygen over to the animal kingdom, and
whose final decomposition, as described, pre-
pares a soil for man to TIL and 1--we upon.
To the forest, then, is due the fundamental
wealth of our agriculture.
There is another profit derived from tree
Though We may have plentiful rains, they
soon run to waste where there are no leaf
coverings of the soil to intercept the flow
and evaporation. By sufficient forestry and
water reservoirs our surplus waters could De
conserved to carry US safely through and
drought that might af1ict us. Is not here
a profit saving of unreasonable value?
Evaporation is proportional to the velocity
and dryneSs Of the wind. Scientific expert
mentation demonstrates that when the tenn
perature of the air is at 80 degrees Fahrenheit
with a relative humidity of 80 per cent, the
evaporation, with the wind blowing five miles
an hour, is % times greater than at calm
at ten miles. 3.8; at fifteen miles, 40; at
twenty miles, ST; at twenty-five miles, 81;
at thirty miles 6.3 times as much as a calm
atmosphere of the same temperature and hu-
nudity. There is also a deadening weight TO
the wind. 1t often uncovers grains in the
early spring, beats down tender plants and
hardens the surface ground to the great in
jury of all our vegetation. Scientists inform
us that hail storms and cyclones are speed
lily broken up by extensively forested lands.
If then, we would be masters of the climate,
of the wind and storm, and save crops from
utter ruin, we must build up living walls OF
trees.
1t is found that a hedge not over six feet
high will palpably protect against hot and
cold winds to a distance of seventy or more
feet. Every additiopal2foo in height adds a
rcd more of preteeti9n. According to this
ration, a forest Of giant trees, rising 300 feet,
will defend vegetation almost entirely
against the windI Hence, farm crops are
larger and better where they are properly
It is safe to say that a rightly managed
forest, say ten t~aetwentF acres. IN less man
a decade will supply the home with ample
fuel by simply thinning out and using up
defective and rowde frees-an art essential
to healthful forest growth.