STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 11^7 



them, and it is no great task to trace back the track over which they came. The world 

 was lately excited over the Cardifl' Giant, but men went to work and soon traced it 

 back thousands of miles to its original bed in the gypsum quarries of Fort Dodge. In 

 the same way they trace the boulders back towards Lake Superior and Greenland, and 

 could find the origin of each one if a few thousand dollars or a large humbug was 

 involved. 



In some parts of Iowa these loose stones, from the size of a man's fist to that of a 

 shock of wheat, lie so thickly strown over the ground and accumulate round the 

 margin of the lakes to such an extent, that in the one case parties might walk over 

 them, stepping on the boulders alone; and in the other, they have given rise to the 

 superstition or belief in walled lakes. In looking over a field of these boulders once 

 upon a time, my companion, who was somewhat irreverent, exclaimed, that it seemed 

 to him as if the devil, when he sifted the soils down out of his great sitter, had emptied 

 with a jerk the accumulated stones over this particular field. If he had named the 

 Creator, instead of his Satanic majesty, I would have thought the comparison a good 

 one. 



Now, I believe the ice cap which covers Greenland at the present time once extended 

 down into the middle regions of North America. Agassiz, some years ago, demon- 

 strated to the satisfaction of the scientific world, that a great ice cap did cover the drift 

 regions of the American continent. The carl^oniferous summer slowly ended, and the 

 glacial winter as slowly came on. An entire change of the flora and fauna of these 

 parts of the earth took place. Glaciers covered our land in every favorable locality. 

 Seas of ice accumulated in the basins. Stones were torn away from the outcrop- 

 ping ledges; ledges were ground into sand and clay; motion took place'iu various 

 directions; but the general movement was towards the south and west. As the 

 climate again grew warmer, the ice cap slowly melted, commencing at the south and 

 melting the ice towards the north. Basins became filled with water, and lakes and 

 seas existed, into which glacial born currents of muddy water poured, and in wliich 

 icebergs and ice floes floated, as wind or currents drove them. And we thus have 

 the compound foi-ces of the glacier, the ice berg, and the water torrent in vigorous 

 operation. These causes, added to and coming after the peaceful agencies and influ- 

 ences, spoken of in the early part of these remarks, explain all that we see, while 

 examining the drift formations, with which our Illinois rocks are covered. The 

 peaceful causes which worked before the drift have also worked since the drift period, 

 and produced some of the later phenomena observable. 



In this way our soils are formed; in this way they are mingled and mixed; and in 

 this way they are carried on long journeys over the earth's surface. In this way they 

 are pulverized, ground up, kneaded. In this way their volume is greatly increased; 

 and they are sweetened up and changed from their sour conditions during the carbon- 

 iferous ages, and made fit for grains, grasses, hard wood, trees, and man— the croAvn- 

 ing and noblest work of all. These are the forces which shoveled and carried such a 

 grand deposit, and spread it over our noble State. And here where we stand, almost 

 in the very gai-den of the State, I cannot refrain from a local allusion or two. Look 

 around you, you people of Ottawa, and see how you are blessed in aU things heart 

 could desire. Rich in agricultural and horticultural resources; the St. Peter's sand- 

 stone crumbling from your hills like unworked mines of melting, crystaline sugar; 

 the black treasures of the earth almost under your leet; a stream ready to toil and 



