Evening star., 1939-06-25

In spite of the skepticism which
greeted the first large-scale planting of
tree windbreaks in the Great Plains,
the trees-for- the-prairies idea already
has thoroughly demonstrated its sound
ness and value.
For the past five years, that is, since
March, 1885, the Forest Service of the
Department of Agriculture has CO.
operated with prairie farmers in plant
ing protective strips of trees at right
angles to prevailing winds on the wheat,
corn and cotton farms Of the Dakotas,
Texas. The work was initiated under
executive order Of the President. Con-
gress provided covering legislation in the
Norris-Doxey Cooperative Farm For
estry Act of 1887. The work has been
financed wholly from relief funds and
labor has been certified from w. P. A.
rolls. On the floor of the Senate have
called this a wonderful work, vitality i'm
portant to the future of the Nation. I
call it so again. Let me set down,
briefly, the story.
The record shows that up to now the
Prairie States Forestry project has CO.
operated with farmers in setting out
1000 miles of field windbreaks on over
10000 farms in "The Heart of America"
in the Bread Basket of the Nation"
In these miles of windbreaks. there have
been planted nearly $4,000 900 trees,
some OF which in only four growing sea-
sons already have attained the surpris-
ing height Of IS feet. As these trees
now planted grow in height they will
beneficially affect about 10000 acres
of adjacent farm land. The cost to the
Federal Government so far for its share
OF the cooperative effort has been only
about $8,2500OO.
know from personal experience
among the farms and. farmers of Ne
braska what these trees mean for the
preservation-in truth, the salvation of
that country-and it's continuance as
the granary Of America.
Only One Tenth Of Need.
But what has been done is not
tenth OF what remains to be done. There
are In the prairie States around 18O,OO0
more farms on which there is critical
need for this sort Of planting and, be-
ieve, before long it must be carried on.
On these 10000 farms, the soil, the rain
fall and climatic factors make 1t pos
sible to grow trees with our present
knowledge and experience There are
some 5000 additional farms which
would be improved through the estab
lishment Of tree windbreaks, but where
the problem of tree-growing is much
more difficult, If not impossible. We
should, however, as sound Americans
looking toward the long future of our
country and our children, not only pro-
vide for a Federal program to co-opera-
lively protect these 10000 farms, but we
should study the problem presented by
these other areas to determine the feasi-
bility Of developing techniques by which
trees may later be established on at least
q part of those 300 900 additional FARMS,
The prairie States present q paradox.
Their soil is some of the best this side
OF Egypt. But from earliest times the
region has been scourged with winds and
years of drought. In this soil there lies
a paradise-but we must conquer the
winds before we can profit from it. And
the last five years have proved that field
windbreaks are an important part Of the
answer. They checkmate the winds on
adjacent lands. They help preserve the
crops and the soil. And they make
prairie farms better places on which to
live.
The recent dust bowl drought, which we