STATE HORTICULTUKAL SOCIETY. 63 



Mr. G. W. Minier, President of the American Forestry Con- 

 jifress, addressed the meeting as follows: 



Mr. President, Lac/ies, mid Gentlemen of the 



Illinois State Hortirultural Society : 



For many years I have interested myself in the subject of 

 Forestry. It is well known that I have viewed the constant destruc- 

 tion and rapid decline of our forest area with no small def^jree of 

 alarm, and that it is but recently that I have returned from a visit 

 to Colorado, in attendance at the annual session of the American 

 Forestry Congress, and, I presume, that it is also known that T 

 have been honored with the Presidency of that Association. And 

 now, fellow-citizens, I have a message to you from the people of the 

 great West. They say to you, if you ever expect to see the great 

 American Desert you must come very soon, as they have determined 

 t(; spoil it by making it all into parks, fruitful fields and orchards, 

 and the energy manifested by these people warrants the assertion. 

 They will do it! They are utilizing all the available water of their 

 springs, creeks, and even rivers, for irrigating their farms and 

 orchards. As our Congress viewed the grand success of these enter- 

 prises, many were the ' exclamations of surprise. Their irrigated 

 Helds were covered with golden grain, their orchard trees loaded with 

 the most ])erfect and beautifully colored fruit, bending to the very 

 earth. 



(Jne of the greatest surprises to the tourist in Colorado is that 

 they cannot estimate distances, as what appears to be only a mile 

 away may ju'ove to be forty. But to go on and relate how we visited 

 Colorado Springs and drank of its famous waters, how Prof. Budd 

 hunted plants and 1 caught bugs, how we visited the celebrated 

 Garden of the Gods, and saw Mother Hubbard and the Major Domo 

 (which is to me only a yellow rock^; how we admired the so-called 

 kissing lambs, aud how we did not overturn the l)alancing rock of 

 the Poet's Mountain, on the top of which is the lone grave of a 

 noble woman. Mrs. H. H. Jackson, the poetess, buried there by her 

 own request; and how I toiled up the mountain to reach that sacred 

 spot, and reverently contril)uted a specimen of feldspar to the 

 already six feet of this substance that covers the grave, may inter- 

 est you, but this is not forestry. 



(-'ongress has passed laws for the jireservation of timber, laws 

 which say that no green timber shall be cut. Hut what of that. 

 The cow-boys just set fire to the grass, it runs through the forest and 

 kills the trees, and the wily cow-boy cuts all the timber he wants. 



Next year this Forestry Congress will probably meet at Lincoln, 

 Nebraska, and we want a number of delegates from Illinois. 



