The weekly times-record. (Valley City, N.D.) 1912-1922, 1913-11-20

wider and more general protection
where large area of country is pro-
vided with complete system Of wind
breaks.
If the Great Plains area, extending
practically from east Of the Red river
to the Rocky Mountains and from
near the Gulf of Mexico to the Cana
dian boundary, were protected with
shelter belts at regular intervale, new
er more than one mile agart, the modi.
flying influence they would exert upon
the winds and other meteorological
phenomena would unquestionably
prove a greater economic value to the
nation than the building and equipping
of several additional battleships. An
argument might even be supported in
favor of this sort of defense against
future hunger with more weight than
any probable defense that will ever be
needed in the way of battleships might
we'll afford to study this problem with
a view to demonstrating the climate
of this vast and fertile region instead
of spending so much money on ships
of war and leaving this larger problem
to be worked out by the homestead
ers.
AS long as the winds can sweep I'M
across vast stretches of
country the painstaking farmer has
no protection against the weeds his
near, or even somewhat remote neigh
bors, allow to mature on their farms.
and largely for want of ef-
fective barriers against wind-dis-
tributed weed seeds, the country is
cursed with weeds of several danger
Gus varieties. Wild oats, French weed,
several varieties of mustard, Canada
and SOW thistle and quack grass are
thoroughly established in many locali-
ties and are rapidly spreading into
others. While good, dense windbreaks
might not entirely prevent the dis
tribution Of weed seed, yet they would
prove sufficiently helpful to make it
possible for the painstaking farmer to
maintain his land so free from bad
weeds sto render their evil influence
The evil effects of weeds cannot be
overestimated Anything that will
prove barrier to their easy distribu-
ton, therefore, will prove godsend
to the up-to-date farmer. A compact
hedge against weed plants that tum-
BILE and scatter their seeds when driv-
ell by the wind and will, to a great ex-
tent, prevent the seeds from drifting
away from the weed polluted farms to
those that are kept clean. -.
In every country not over,abound-
antly supplied with moisture the weed
problem is mos tseri0us. Not infre-
quently half crop or less is realized
and the partial failure is conveniently
attributed to drought, when as a mat
ter of fact there was plenty of mois-
ture to mature full crop with soil
water to spare, had not thrifty crop
of weeds robbed the soil of the mois-
ture the grain required. This ever
lasting robbing the soil of water by
weeds will go on causing an annual
loss of millions upon millions of dol
lars until, driven by necessity, wide
spread and systematic effort is made
looking toward their eradication. This
can scarcely be expected to occur un-
til the countrw is divided into narrow
strips by fairly effective barriers
against the easy and ready distribu-
ton of their seeds. Even then, it will
prove sufficiently difficult task.
BY a very careful calculation made
several years ago by computing the
amount of dry matter in the form of
weeds that grew upon average wheat
land, it was found that the weeds con-
sumed enough water to produce in the
neighborhood of two bushels of whea:
per acre. Little wonder then that the
Dakotas are slandered by being
charged with drouthy conditions when
the blame attaches to weeds or rath-
er, to a system of farm management
that attempts the impossible, that Of
growing profitable crops and weeds at
the same time. This is especially true
of a climate that usually gives down
just about sufficient moisture every
year for a bumper grain crop, provid-
ed none of it is wasted.
To place the annual damage done
by weeds in Minnesota and the two
Dakotas at less than 100000, 900
would be stating the damage too mild
ly. When such a tremendous damage
is sustained and where the exil is un-
questionably a growing one, heroic
measures for it's abatement are fully
warranted. The space shelter belts
would OCCUPY and the cost of their