144 Wisconsin State Horticultural Society. 



Your society was among the first to direct attention to the in- 

 fluence of the forests upon agricultural conditions, and to warn 

 the people against their destruction, and you thus enlisted many 

 on the side of the trees. From the perusal of a very imperfect set 

 of your valuable reports at my disposal, it appears that as early 

 as 1867 you were already considering the ruinous results of clear- 

 ing away the forests, as shown by climatic effects upon the farm 

 and orchard products. At the same meeting of your society you 

 proposed offering premiums on artificial plantations of trees, and 

 suggested also the necessity for protecting, and caring for the nat- 

 ural woodlands; recognizing the importance of that branch of the 

 subject, called the conservation of our forests. At the same session 

 you even ventured to furnish a list of trees to be planted, and, 

 better than all, you appealed to the legislature for the appoint- 

 ment of a commission to report upon the general subject, and, 

 happily, you were successful in your appeal. The commissioners 

 were Messrs. I. A. Lapham, J. G. Knapp, and H. Crocker. Their 

 report, now before me, has been a favorite text-book ever since its 

 receipt from the hands of my good friend Plumb, of Milton. This 

 copy is now sent to a special committee of our own legislature to 

 whom has been assigned the consideration of theForesty-question 

 for Ohio. It will furnish them many strong arguments, and thus 

 3 t ou may see the wisdom and benefits arising, even now, from 

 your own action so long ago. 



But you did not stop there, for in 1871, you heard and printed 

 valuable papers by the lamented McAfee, who was a self-taught 

 devotee to the subject, and by TV. Fisher, who, it is hoped, con- 

 tinues to plant trees for their shelter, and who, having wisely be- 

 gun with the cotton-wood, as the pioneer of the prairie plantation, 

 has, before this time, been able to supplement his groves with 

 many other more valuable species, to which the cotton-wood has 

 rendered the much needed shelter and protection as avant-courier 

 and nurse. A similar course has been persistently urged upon 

 the tree planters upon the exposed plains of Kansas and Ne- 

 braska. "Cheap trees" first, such as poplars, box-elder, water- 

 maples, etc., followed by oaks, hickories, ash, hard maples, wild 

 cherry, walnuts, birches, et cetera, as hard-woods, the everlasting 



