SUMMER MEETING, 18S2. 75 



But now I wish to call special attention to a branch of the subject that 

 hitherto has iiot been so commonly treated, and that is the planting of shade 

 trees on the road side. And I wish I could live to sec the time when every 

 mile of public road in the State of Michigan will bo lined on either side with 

 shade trees. For this purpose there is nothing superior to the hard maple. 

 And in this connection I wish to make a few suggestions that are not visionary 

 but practical. 



First we must plant the trees, and this must be done in the most thorough 

 manner; then if they arc properly cared for they will not die. When they are 

 five years old we can attach barbed Avire to them, and use them for fence 

 posts, and w'hen they are twenty years old we can commence to tap them and 

 make maple syrup. And I suggest this to show how simple and easy it is for 

 farmers to beautify their homes and yet utilize it for so many good purposes. 

 Here, then, we have combined an added beauty, an abundance of shade to 

 refresh the weary traveler, everlasting fence posts, and a sugar orchard. And 

 I need not tell you that maple sugar and syrup are as good luxuries as the 

 world ev§r produced. And shade trees planted on botii sides of the road would 

 enhance the value of real estate many times the cost of growing them. 



The State should make a law providing for the planting of trees on every 

 mile of road in the State [this is already done. — Seo'y] ; tlien the traveler 

 could move all day in the cool shade, and could be sheltered from the rain 

 under the foliage; the roots of the trees will mat under the road and make a 

 more solid bed; the shadow of those trees thrown across a field on a frosty 

 morning will prevent the frost from damaging the crops; if potatoes are 

 planted where these trees shade the ground part of the day, the bugs' eggs 

 will not hatch. The wind is broken in summer, preventing dust, and in winter 

 the bleak storms are modified. Trees also help take up the malaria in hot 

 ■weather and transform it into vegetable growth, thus purifying the atmosphere. 

 They form a convenient nesting place for the feathered songsters while feed- 

 ing their young upon the innumerable insect pests that prey upon the farmers' 

 crops. If every farmer will go to work and beautify his surroundings he will 

 help to make the world better, and his children's children will rise up and call 

 him blessed. 



But what a contrast there is between a home with these surroundings and 

 that of a family living in a dilapidated dwelling, with the outward adornments 

 of perhaps a few unkept fruit trees, with bare road-sides, the dwelling to be 

 reached by climbing a rail fence, and the inside adornments perhaps composed 

 of two dogs and five cats, by means of which and the aid of ten hogs, they 

 succeed in raising fleas for the rest of the family, who drag out their long days 

 and nights in brooding over life's miseries, instead of working out their own 

 salvation by making their surroundings contribute to their permanent happi- 

 ness. 



I might go on indefinitely to show the similarity between man and his sur- 

 roundings, for there is a general law of nature that like seeks like, and like 

 produces like, and therefore wisdom is justified of her children, and a fool is 

 known by his folly; or again, a man's surroundings are his exact measure. 



REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 



The Committee on Transportation reported substantially as follows: 

 ]. It is not best for our Society to take positive action in connection with 

 securing railway arrangements, for it is not really a part of the Society work. 



