roposition and measured the distances that the shelter-belt would
shelter the crops, and he came to the conclusion that for every foot in
height there would be an absolute protection for a rod in distance, and
outside of that actual protection there would be a long distance that
would be partially protected. The same study was made by a gentleman in
Iowa--I can't call his name just now--and he came to practically the
same conclusion as to the distance that the protection reached in
proportion to the height of shelter-belt.

[Illustration: Mountain Ash windbreak at Devil's Lake, N.D.]

A Member: I want a shelter mostly for apple trees. Would it be five or
six years before I receive any benefit, or seven or eight years?

Mr. Maher: Plant your protection when you plant your apple trees, and
you will have your protection sooner than you have your apples. If you
are going to do that, don't put the shelter too close to the apple
trees, which is a very common fault.

A Member: How much distance would you allow for the roots?

[Illustration: White Willow windbreak at Devil's Lake, N.D.]

Mr. Maher: I should say not less than 100 feet, anyway.

Mr. Moyer: I live in southwestern Minnesota, about thirty miles from the
South Dakota line, and I think it is a mistake to recommend the white
spruce for planting out there. The white spruce naturally grows towards
the North Pole, it extends even up to the Arctic Circle. Twenty-four
years ago I purchased a dozen white spruce from Robert Douglas, who was
then alive, and planted them northwest of my house. About five years ago
they began to fail, and now only two or three are alive, and they are
covered with dead branches. I feel sure that the white spruce have been
injured by the hot winds that come across the prairies from the
southwest. I don't think they can stand it. There is a variety of white
spruce that grows in the Black Hills, which I think will be decided to
be a different species when botanists come to study it, that will stand
our prairies. Another tree that we like is the Colorado blue spruce; it
is hardy and grows excellently. About twenty-three years ago, when
Professor Verner was at the head of the Forestry Department at
Washington he sent me 8,000 evergreens, and I set them out. They were
bull pine and the Scotch pine and Austrian pine. I was over to look at
them the other day. The Scotch pine, which have been set now
twenty-three years, are over thirty feet high, th