STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 1 



you many facts which show precisely the reverse. Every summer, where 

 I live, I can watch the clouds divide as they reach the fork of the Merri- 

 mac and the Missouri ; i)art of them go one way and part another ; yet 

 that is a very thickly timbered country. The trite facts he mentions we 

 all recognize. I have never denied the influence of forests as ameliorat- 

 ing temperature. If there is a moist atmosphere in the forest, it must 

 have come from somewhere. Tlie moisture comes from all the expanse 

 of watery surface — whether sea or fresh water ; and you know, as well as I 

 do, that that watery surface is less to-day than it was in primeval days, 

 when men did not till the soil, and so also there is less radiation. 



Now, if in my argument I have said any thing that would at all reflect 

 on the essayist, he will pardon me. I simply had the object of bringing 

 out this discussion. I have paid very little attention to the subject, but I 

 know that we could argue this question for a whole day. 



We want facts — unbiased facts — we must not be misled by the public 

 statements, without reflecting upon and testing them. It is for that 

 reason that I put in my protest. There is too nuich copying of each 

 other. I must confess that seven or eight years ago, I believed in this 

 wonderful disaster that was coming over our country from the denudation 

 of our forests; I believed all that was said. But from what I have since 

 thought, I have been led to a different conclusion. If, from the remarks 

 made, any thing shall be done, I shall be well satisfied. 



Mr. Flagg — I believe that I could prove that radiation and evapor- 

 ation go on more rapidly from the cultivated country than from one that 

 is not cultivated. It is said here that they are both the same. Now, I 

 deny that iti ioto. Your corn fields do not protect the ground as grass or 

 woods will do. 



Mr. WiER — If I understood Mr. Greene, he said that our jjlants, 

 grass, etc., were absorbing moisture from the air. I said they did not 

 do it — they were continually throwing immense quantities of water into 

 the air, which is the fact. Our forests won't grow in a dry soil ; they dr) 

 out just because animals have tramped the surface down, so that tlie trees 

 cannot get food. I know very well that trees fix a certain amount of 

 water, but I am not going to say that they do it in the way stated. 



I think there is great fault found with the place of meeting, and 

 there are many here who would like to know if it is to be changed. 



The President — The meeting will be held here at nine o'clock in the 

 morning. At one o'clock there will be the exercises of dedication ; then 

 in the evening we meet at Eichberg's opera house. 



The meeting then adjourned until nine o'clock of next day. 



