WINDBREAK. or SHELTER BELT. Any plant ing on the windward side of buildings, orchards, gardens, etc., with the object of overcoming the force of the wind. Windbreaks are of great ad vantage in prairie regions in protecting from the lessening evaporation iron) Soil.: and plants, retaining snow and leaves as proteetion, lessen Mg liability to mooloinioal injury from winds, protect dig hoes at time of blossoming., and so on. Some disadvcctmes are that they cause snow to drift to the leeward; prevent the cireulation A warm winds in spring. thus retarding the melting of snow and the drying, of the soil and road.; and furnish harbors for plant pests. etc. The reew a re u,int lly planted upon the north and west sides of the object it is desired to pro tect. The drifting of snow may be prevented about buildings by planting a second line of trees at a distance from the main shelter belt. The snow will then be caught in the space between the two. The number of rows of trees required for a good shelter belt will depend upon the kind of trees planted and the nature of the country. Among the best spe
cies for planting are the Norway spruce, Austrian and Scottish pines, maples, and box-elder. In Minnesota and similar regions it is recommended first to plant white willows, followed by green ash and white elm, and after these beeome established to plant hardy evergreens, mountain ash, and birches or other ornamental trees and shrubs. A mixed plantation with hardy deciduous trees to the windward is by many the ideal windbreak. In planting windbreaks, as \veil as in all other tree-planting on the prairies, the trees should be far enough apart for cultivation, but sufficiently thick to furnish forest conditions at the earliest time possible. A distance of S feet for the rows and 2 feet apart in the rows is be lieved to have given the most satisfactory re sults.