122 Wisconsin State Horticultural Socirty. 



examination. Thank fortune, you printed no "Transactions"" in 

 those days, and the foolish remarks, hastily penned, have failed to 

 see the light. Still, if it did no good to others, it did much for 

 me. It gave inspiration to the Report on the Destruction of the 

 Forest Trees of Wisconsin; to the several papers I have read be- 

 fore your meetings in aftertimes, and to the paper on the "Isother- 

 mal Lines of "Wisconsin," with which your Report for 1871 is 

 closed ; also to the framing of the acts of Wisconsin, concerning 

 Tree Culture. That same inspiration has followed me still. In 

 the lead of the times, I have made now and then a blaze on a 

 tree in the untraveled ways ; and now I have the pleasure of see- 

 ing myself passed in the race for knowledge. Go on, horticultur- 

 ists ; yow have a great work before you — a nation to instruct. 

 Remember it is not the geologist, the superintendents of the signal 

 service, you are to teach, but the common minds ; some call them 

 " Clod-hoppers." No matter, so they hop ahead. You are teach- 

 ing men to learn to supply themselves with comforts, health, some 

 with wealth. Your enemy is no less powerful than the elements, 

 and you must call in the assistance of nature if you would con- 

 quer. That all-powerful ally aids those who know how to use 

 her. Your reports tell me of the strides you have made, the re- 

 doubts you have overcome, the assaults you have made on those 

 which remain. I see that one and another have been seduced, 

 like myself, to other regions; but we all look back with delight 

 at every victory you win. Most have selected regions of climatic 

 conditions similar to Wisconsin; myself, perhaps alone, the most 

 dissimilar. But even here, the lessons I learned in Wisconsin are 

 of immense service. Trees and shrubs, rainfalls and droughts, 

 heat and cold, sunshine and shade, and currents of wind are my 

 teachers still. The soil on which I tread gives its faithful lessons 

 of truth and knowledge. All trees and shrubs, with a few rare 

 exceptions, are strangers to Northern eyes ; many old friends do 

 not show their faces, and one asks fearfully, will they ever do so ? 

 The black oak dwarfed, the wild cherry and basswood here and 

 there, and Cherokee plum, and we have called the roll. All the 

 rest are strangers, and teach strange lessons. The rains, too, often 

 four times as great as in Wisconsin, falling in seasons, with a heat 



