Montana farmer-stockman. [volume], April 01, 1950, Image 1

About Montana farmer-stockman. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1947-1993

Image provided by: Montana Historical Society; Helena, MT

                
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April 1, 1950
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Left: O. M. Patten, head of the forest nursery and
extension forester, looks up at 4-year-old Chinese
elms in the nursery shelterbelt planting. These trees
were not irrigated.
Below: Patten examines some ponderosa pine plant
ings. Pine and other evergreens have 2 years in the
seed bed plus 2 more years in a transplant area
before being shipped out. Transplanting strengthens
the root system.
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Millions of
'ees
For Montana Shelterhelts
By JERRY LESTER
MILLIONS OF TREES for Montana's
farm shelterhelts and woodlots have been
• sent out in the last 22 years from a small,
little known nursery near the campus of
Montana State university at Missoula. Al
though production at the nursery in recent
years has been up to 750,000 seedlings per
year, the soil in some spots was wearing a
little thin and there was no space for ex
pansion.
Solution to the problem came in the
lease recently of a 200-acre tract of irrigated
land near Fort Missoula. With the new
nursery, O, M. Patten, supervisor of the
• nursery and extension forester for the Mon
tana Extension service, hopes to increase
production to 1,000,000 trees a year.
Co-operative Project
The forest nursery is operated by the.
Montana forest and conservation experi
ment station- of the school of forestry, Mon
tana State university, Missoula, in co-opera
tion with the Montana Extension . service
and the federal government.
The nursery is set up on a co-operative
basis so that the federal government shares
the cost of matching state expenditures. The
project was set up with the idea of finding
and making available trees that wfcre suit
able to Montana climatic conditions.
Hardiness Essential
Montana conditions are fairly tough on
trees. With a rainfall of from 12 to 18
inches over our plains areas, the require
«rifr
AND NORTHERN WYOMING
MONTANA
y
ment for drouth
hardiness is fore
most. Winter har
diness is also im
portant. Then the
matter of speed of
growth is impor
tant, especially in
windbreak plant
ings so that quick
protection can be
obtained. Proof
that objectives of
the nursery have
been achieved can
be seen in any
part of the state
where farmsteads of nearly all progressive
farmers are protected by rows of beautiful
shrubs and trees.
As head of the nursery and now exten
sion forester, Patten not only knows the
story on how to grow the seedlings but also
knows, from a good many field trips around
Deliveries are being made early this
month of trees ordered prior to Dec. 31,
1949. Since dryland shelterbelt areas
should be summerfallowed one season be
fore planting, farmers and ranchers plan
ning to plant shelterbelts next spring
should prepare the land now and place
their orders with their county agents well
before next Dec. 31.
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—Montana farmer-Stockman Photo«
Her* aro 1-year-old stands of Russian olive, left, and caragana. right, seen at the
forest nursery near Missoula. As can be seen, the Russian olive develop* con
siderably faster.
J
the state, just what factors make successful
shelterbelts possible.
The layout design for a good dryland
windbreak, according to Patten, goes like
this: The outside row should be shrubs,
then medium tall trees, tall trees and, near
est the house, evergreens and shrubs. The
shrubs should be as tight as possible to stop
the wind A rom blowing under other trees.
Such shrubs as caragana, chokecherry, wild
plum, sumac and honeysuckle have been
found excellent for non-irrigated plantings.
The row after the shrubs should be of
medium tall trees such as green ash, Amer
ican elm or box elder in some localities.
The center row should have the tallest
trees. The (please turn to page 4)