Evening star., 1934-10-29
TREE-BELT CRITICS
ANSWERED BY us.
Forest Service Officials Say
Cultivation on Plains
Already Succeeds.

BY the Associated Press.
Forest service officials have an
answer for critics Of the proposed
| l,000-mile tree shelter belt who say
the plan is impractical because trees
will not grow in the Great Plains.
| The answer is: Trees already are
growing there"
The foresters' best argument Is the
Nebraska national forest Of $4,000
acres where trees have been planted
annually since about 1900 and where
the earliest paintings now are matur-
ing to the point where fence posts
and fuel can be taken out In thinning
operations.
This forest is in a sand hills region
where growing conditions were re-
garded as highly unfavorable.
Admit Failures Run High.
Oficials admit there has been a
high percentage of failure in earlier
attempts to grow trees on dry western
praries. The timber culture act of
1873 made tree planting require
ment of homesteading, and some
States adopted laws to encourage the
planting of windbreaks and groves.
Failures often were due, 1t Is
claimed, to the fact that home
steader might expect tree species from
moist Eastern regions to grow under
greatly different Western conditions
Often, too, planting was a formality
to live up to requirements, without
adequate protection given to the trees
from live stock, or without proper care
or cultivation.
But despite methods often unScien-
tiflc, foresters point out, there are to-
day many private plantations, ante
dating even the drought Of 1893,
which demonstrate that trees will
grow in the prairies.
The forest service is giving prelim-
mary study to selection of tree species
native or acclimated to the shelter
belt area which have demonstrated
their ability to survive. On this basis
trees that survived the 1894 drought
in large number will be given q high
mark in the scoring.
Trees which apparently a m e
through this year as winners" in
clude: Red cedar, green ash, elm,
Chinese elm, honey locust, black
locust, cottonwood in the more moist
spots, blackberry, jack pine. and others.
Experts concede there probably
would be high percentage Of failure
should drought such as that of 1884
come Immediately after planting. Cli-
matte records, however, show that
droughts are periodic and that the
probability is that a period of more
abundant rainfall is at hand. Given
a chance to establish themselves in a
period of comparatively abundant
rainfall, young trees likely would sur
vive future droughts, it is said. Espe-
cially is this true If the planting Is
thick enough to preserve moisture.
Some Areas to be Skipped.
Preliminary plans also call for the
skipping of some of the less favorable
areas in the planting of shelter strips.
Thus starting at Mohau and Minot,
N. Oak, the belt would extend south
to the Missouri river at Washburn,
along the Missouri to Chamberlain,
s. Oak. across the river and south
westward to Alliance, Nebr, but avoid
ing extensive sandhills, beginning
again south of the North Platte River
at Oshkosh, Nebr., through Julesburg
and Wray, Colo, to Sharon Springs,
Kans., Garden City and Liberal, and
finally west of South to Amarillo,
finally west Of south to Amarillo, Tex.
The belt conforms roughtly with an
area shown on weather maps where
annual rainfall is 20 inches or more,
or as far West as experience has
shown trees can be grown. To the
west is an area where rainfall Is less
and where 1t is believed trees would
be grown with greater difdculty and
less economically. To the east is an
area Of greater productivity where
private planting of windbreaks and
groves already has made progress.
The area of the shelterbelt Is de-
| scribed by forest service officials as of
reasonable productivity yet subject to
recurring droughts and so young of
settlement that private planting as
yet has made little headway.