PLANTS FOR HEDGES : Page 277

Hedges for the purpose of windbreaks and solid screens are composedalmost entirely of trees which are more or less compact in their habit ofgrowth and will continue to develop while planted in a crowded space.Considerable good judgment should be used in locating a windbreakwhich is likely to act as a snow trap also, because the great drift of snowwhich accumulates behind a large windbreak may prove a nuisance inthe early spring by lying deeply on the ground long after the land underit should be thawed out and ready to use. This drift may also breakdown small and brittle trees and shrubs and do more damage than good.For this reason, on the open prairies of the Dakotas it is often foundnecessary to locate windbreaks as far as one hundred feet to the wind-ward of the buildings or road which are to be protected, because a stripapproximately ten times its height is affected by a windbreak. This isshown by the snow lying drifted for this distance to the leeward after aheavy snowfall, accompanied by a driving wind.