48 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



VALUE OF TIMBEE PEESERVES AND WINDBREAKS. 



Mr. A. B. Copley of Decatur: Mr. Gliddeii appears to be as much in 

 favor of preservation of a timber supply and protection of our farming 

 lands by timber belts as are other speakers, but he prefers, wisely I think, 

 young, growing trees to old and decaying ones. Such windbreaks are a 

 surety of good croiDS. I know of cases where protected fields have borne 

 good crops repeatedly, while neighboring unprotected tracts of as good 

 soil and as well cultivated, often failed. If one fourth of our southern 

 Michigan prairie tracts were in timber, in belts north and south, the other 

 three fourths would produce more than the whole now does. In those 

 small prairies, the best parts are at the west and southwest, where they 

 were, before occupied, protected by woodlands. The opposite sides, where 

 the wind had full sweep, are often "barrens." 



Mr. C. A. Hawley of Shelby thought the woman spoken of by Mrs. 

 Bartlett must be a stoic, for he was born near Lake Champlain and never 

 failed to be impressed by its grandeur of scenery. He leaves young trees 

 all about his farm, even in the peach orchard, " to look at" 



Mr. S. H. Comings of St. Joseph: Mr. Beal's hint to plant trees in 

 clumps instead of straight, formal rows, brings to my mind the beauty of 

 the blue-grass region of Kentucky. When I beheld it I contrasted it w^ith 

 our Michigan way of planting in rows, and resolved that if I ever set any 

 more trees, I would place them about in groups, 



Mr. L. B. Rice of Port Huron: A man with forty acres can scarcely 

 afford to leave fifteen of them to trees, or a considerable part in groves or 

 clumps and keep paying taxes upon them. I would have exempt from 

 taxation all woodlands of one or more acres upon cultivated farms. 

 [Applause.] The barren j)ine tracts in "the thumb," (the region between 

 Saginaw bay and river and lake Huron) should be bought by the state 

 and replanted or allowed to grow up, as it would do. naturally, to poplar 

 and birch. It \^ould protect better lands from the winds of the lakes. 



Mr. E. MoEEiLL of Benton Harbor: I was sorry that Mr. Glidden 

 omitted mention of the financial benefit of leaving timber in belts. Even 

 now, by judicious planting, we can preserve what fertility we have left. 

 I believe that, so far as affording it is concerned, were one third of our 

 cleared land replaced with timber we could make more from the remaining 

 two thirds. 



Mr. A. C. Glidden : I believe in such belts, but it is hard to get men 

 to plant them when they see near by their effect in a certain way. I have 

 to throw away the use of three rods wide of land along my row of maples. 

 Most men see only the waste of the three rods of land and do not see the 

 other benefits. One tenth of a man's forty acres in timber would in 

 twenty years yield as great financial return as any other ten acres on the 

 farm. The owner of such a tract can well afford to pay the taxes upon it. 



The secretary read the following pajjer by James Satteelee of Albany, 

 N. Y., formerly of Lansing, assistant secretary of the New York state 

 agricultural society, upon 



foeestey legislation in the state of new yoek. 



In the winter of 1885 the legislature of the state of New York i^assed a 

 bill authorizing the appointment of a forest commission. The commission 

 consists of three men, appointed by the governor, who serve without pay. 



