y by the blocks of nursery stock, whereas the
yield in the vicinity was from nothing to fifty bushels per acre--and I
believe if Mr. Andrews will inquire into the location of the good apple
crops about Faribault he will probably find they were saved by similar
shelter protection, or the natural lay of the land.

Mr. Kellogg: What is your best windbreak?

Mr. Maher: The evergreen is the best windbreak for the reason that it
gives more shelter, retains its leaves in the winter and fewer rows of
trees will make a good shelter-belt. The variety--that is, west of the
timber line in Minnesota--I should say the best would be the Ponderosa
pine, or bull pine, after that the jack pine may be, or else the
Colorado blue spruce and the Black Hills spruce.

Mr. Kellogg: Colorado spruce is too expensive to set out as a windbreak.

Mr. Maher: Well, the green varieties. I don't see why they should be any
more costly than the others. Of course, they are held at a higher price,
but they make a good windbreak because they are easily grown and are
perfectly hardy to stand the dry atmosphere and the hot winds.

[Illustration: American Elm windbreak at Devil's Lake, N.D.]

Mr. Kellogg: What is the reason there are so few of them really blue?

Mr. Maher: I don't know. There is only a small percentage, probably 15
per cent., that are blue. I think the dryer atmosphere produces more
blue than the more humid atmosphere. We have more blues in North Dakota
than you will find even here. I believe it is the dry atmosphere and the
intense sunlight that causes the blue, because the red cedar in North
Dakota, the native red cedar, is really a silver cedar and has a blue
sheen, or rather, a silver sheen.

A Member: How large do the trees have to be to be of benefit?

Mr. Maher: I have a friend out of Devils Lake who had 160 acres of flax
destroyed by a spring wind that hits the earth at such an angle. It
picked up the earth and cut the flax off, by reason of the clay hitting
the little plant, except about a hundred foot strip along the west
side, and that was protected by a growth of grass and weeds not to
exceed a foot in height. So it depends on the kind of wind a great deal
and the angle at which the wind strikes the grounds.

Now, the distance that a windbreak will protect a field has been studied
out and measured and demonstrated by a great number of men. Mr. McGee,
at Indian Head, gave a great deal of thought and study to the windbreak
p