150 STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



is carried away in a latent condition live and one-half times as great as would 

 suffice to raise such amount of water from the freezing to the boiling point. 



It is conceded to be true that any vegetable growth upon the soil, whether of 

 timber or otherwise, takes from the soil and dissipates into the atmosphere a 

 very considerable amount of moisture, but every one conversant with forests 

 will be aware of the fact that such grounds are usually sufficiently moist for a 

 considerable period after naked or cultivated soils manifest suffering from 

 drought. A forest growth, while it checks the loss of heat and moisture by 

 evaporation, at the same time excludes, in a measure, the direct rays of the 

 sun, so that the ultimate result is a general equalizing of the amounts of both 

 warmth and moisture, and an avoidance of the extremes in either direction that 

 would in other circumstances be likely to occur. 



It is also the conviction of many persons of high scientific reputation, that 

 timber growths exert an important influence upon the rainfall of a country ; 

 but upon this point there are wide differences of opinion, hence we omit any 

 direct consideration of this point and content ourselves with the assumption 

 that moisture, saved to the soil by checking its dissipation, is nearly if not quite 

 as valuable to lands in need of it as an actually increased amount of rainfall. 

 It will be observed that our reasoning is directed solely to cases involving pos- 

 sible lack of moisture. To cases of excessive moisture, and hence demanding 

 provisions for drainage, the reasoning can only apply after the requisite provis- 

 ions for drainage have been supplied. 



The settlement of a country, at least by such a people as ours, involves the 

 extensive opening of farms, and, as a consequence, the wholesale destruction of 

 the timber ; and we take occasion to remark that this element in the problem has 

 now been operative for half a century, since the settlement of the State may be 

 said to have commenced — a period sufficiently long to enable us, by a careful 

 retrospect, to draw important and well-grounded deductions from its experiences. 

 The early settlers of Michigan, if we leave out of the account the earlier French 

 fur traders or "voyageurs" who came mainly from New York and New Eng- 

 land, bringing with them the love of fruits and flowers so characteristic of those 

 regions; and although they generally seem at first to have had little confi- 

 dence in the capacity of their chosen home for these pursuits, the success of 

 the earlier trials soon begat an increase of such confidence. It is, even now, a 

 fact within the recollection of all that, wherever a nook was carved from the 

 primeval forests, our sturdy pioneers not only reaped rich returns in teeming 

 fields of grain, but they were also favored with Pomona's bountiful gift-, with 

 a certainty that left little occasion to fear or doubt as to their future perma- 

 nency. But, alas ! for the vanity of such hopes. The axe of the hardy pioneer 

 was steadily laying low the forest before it; farm after farm was opened out of 

 the forest and subjected to the ameliorating influences of cultivation, and as 

 few of these farms were large, continuous lines of clearing began to stretch 

 along our streets and highways, while timber preserves adjoined each other in 

 continuous lines along the rear of the farms, leaving long vistas of open 

 country, more commonly in easterly and westerly lines to invite the free sweep 

 of the prevailing winds in those directions. The continuation of this process 

 gradually changed the aspect of broad areas of country from that of dense 

 timber to something approaching that of the prairies of the farther wot ; till at 

 the present time, such comparatively tender fruits as the peach which, in 

 earlier days, was almost as sure of a crop of fruit as of the return of the proper 

 season, has come to be so uncertain that its cultivation is. to a greal extent, 



