Evening star., 1936-05-31
BY COLEMAN b. JONES'

THE New Deal vision OF mlIllons
of Young trees growing in care
fully arranged ranks of wind
L breaks within the next decade,
IN a strip of semi-arid country 1000
miles long and 100 miles wide down
the middle of the continent, will go
into liquidation with the dawn of the
next fiscal year. July i.
Congress has assigned the S75 100000
shelterbelt project to the limbo which
the Senate previously decreed for the
$3.50 900, 600 to the 5000, 900 Florida
ship canal and the s36 100000 to S42,-
600, 900 Passamaquoddy tidal power
project. On July /, with only S170,-
900 provided to cover costs OF liqui-
dating existing obligations, only about
s2,900,0oO will have been spent, and
seedlings will have been planted in
only about 30500 of the 2,l80,OOO
acres contemplated.
Whether the administration will
undertake to revive the shelterbelt
plan. as it has the Quoddy and
Florida canal projects, through spe-
cial legislative action, remains in
doubt. especially in view of the de-
sire for early adjournment OF Con-
gress. The shelterbelt project, al
though it seemed to have more friends
than the other two, or at least less
vehement opposition, Jared worse in
the legislative mill.
Spurned by House.
The House, which was ready to
let more funds 60 into the 'Quoddy
and Florida canal projects, voted into
its version of the Agriculture Depart
ment appropriation bill a specific pro-
hibition against use OF any OF the
funds for the shelterbelt. The Senate
was willing to provide S1,000,000 to
carry the work forward. When the
issue went to conference the Senate
and House representatives compro-
missed by cutting the Shelterbelt ap-
preparation to $4,000 to cover only
obligations already incurred, chiefly
with nurseries.
Chief hope of advocates of the Shell
terbelt idea for eventual realization
of major part of the plan lies in the
fact that the Forest Service has re-
ceived more requests from farm own
ers for trees than it will have seed
lings. 1t is still free, apparently,
under the Clarke-McNary act of 1924,
to cooperate with State agencies and
farmers in giving technical advice and
aid and similarly promoting tree
planting to develop effective wind
breaks.
Moreover, although the original
plan contemplated purchase and lease
of land as well as acceptance of dona-
tions of strips from farmers to be di-
rectly benefited, all operations have
been confined to land provided by
owners willing to enter agreements to
the extent also of preparing the soil
for the trees and maintaining them
after they were planted
The shelterbelt project was started
by President Roosevelt with an execu-
tive order In July, 1884, in which. de-
scribing the project as one intended
to meet the emergency and necessity
for relief in stricken agricultural areas
suffering from the drought, he allo-
Gated $15,000,000 of emergency. agri-
cultural relief funds. That ALLEGATION
of which it was planned to use only
$10,000,000 in the initial stages, en-
countered objections by Controller
General J. r. McCarl, based largely
On the long-range nature of the plan
in the light of the fact that the money
was appropriated for emergency" re.
lief activity.
Small Beginning Made.
The upshot was that way was
found to provide $1,000, 900 relief fund.-
to get the project under way that Fal
in the way of making preparations fol
the program and, when the planting
season followed the next year, a small
beginning of actual planting on a
demonstration and experimental basis
The 10O-mile belt roughly followed
the 99th meridian, extending from thu
Canadian border into the Texas Pan
handle and touching Devils Lake il
North Dakota, Mitchell in South Da
kota, Lexington in Nebraska, Kinsle!
In Kansas and Mangum in Oklahoma
The plans called for planting II
strips not more than mile long ant
100 to 1870 feet, wide, and one mill
| apart, 10 or more rows Of trees rang
j ing from tall ones In the center Il
, short ones at the edges. In the 1885,