142 W is coxs in State Horticultural Society. 



may produce this result, so nicely balanced is this point of change, 

 and it has often happened that the air heated by reflection from 

 rocks exposed to the sun in summer, has been found to pass over 

 still dry, instead of yielding, as when these rocks were shaded, an 

 abundant supply of rain. 



But aside from the climatic probabilities connected with the 

 forest question, as presented in this state, which were very strongly 

 presented in the report made to your legislature by Messrs. Lap- 

 ham, Knapp and Crocker, some fourteen years ago, there are ques- 

 tions of direct and certain profit involved in forest-planting that 

 should arrest the attention of farmers in every section of the 

 country, and lead to measures that would secure these benefits. 

 There can be no doubt but that the yield of farm land would be 

 increased and secured against injuries from drouth and insect rav- 

 ages, if a due proportion of the surface was protected by wood- 

 land growth, and their influence in screening the soil from injuri- 

 ous winds, and in moderating the solar heat, is too obvious to 

 need proof. From the best estimates that have been made from 

 careful observation, it has been shown that fully as much profit 

 can be secured from three-fourths of the surface, where the re- 

 maining fourth part is covered with groves, as from the whole of 

 the land without them. Pasture grounds retain their freshness in 

 such a region, when they would become parched and dry without 

 shelter; streams and rivulets do not dry up in summer where 

 their sources are shaded, and there is no wholesale destruction from 

 insect ravages in a country interspersed with woods. This latter 

 exemption is partly due to the abundance of insectiverous birds 

 that find a home in the groves, and partly to the fact that the 

 more destructive kinds of insects, as for example the grasshoppers, 

 will not breed in, nor will they fly over a wooded country to any 

 noticable extent, although they may have been frequent and 

 dreaded visitors in the same region before the groves were planted. 



In every section of the country there are tracts of land that 

 cannot be cultivated, or even pastured with profit, and that are 

 lying almost idle and unprofitable upon their owner's hands. It 

 will often be found that such lands are exceedingly well adapted 

 to tree growing, and if they are broken and rocky, the opportunity 



