STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 53 



produced a certain amount of rain-fall will do the same now. But I think 

 the extremes are greater. I think our apple trees have been damaged 

 more by excessive rains and succeeding droughts than was the case fifteen 

 or twenty years ago. I think for the last ten years the maximum cold for 

 January has been greater than for any other series of ten years. Last 

 winter we had the cold at minus 27°. In 1864 it was minus 25°. These 

 points were not reached at any time back of that, unless it was in 1831 

 and in 1856 or 1S57. There are three periods, almost, of ten years in 

 which there has been intense cold. 



I think the same holds true of heat. There has been a greater varia- 

 tion between the extremes, while perhaps it did not affect the means. 

 Now I should like to see Meehan or Draper attend to that question, 

 because I think it is a practical one. 



The question is asked by a correspondent of Meehan's — "Do our 

 trees live as long as in Europe, or can they?" And Mr. Meehan says — 

 " No. The oak may live one hundred years, and then it would decay in 

 a hundred." I have no doubt he is right in that. 



I made a translation, the year before last, of the observations made 

 by Mr. Matthieu, at Nancy, France. He measured the rain-fall at two 

 points six miles apart ; one in an almost treeless, farming country, and 

 the other in a small opening in a large, dense forest. The result of his 

 observations for two years and eight months showed a difference of several 

 inches of rain-fall in favor of the forest. The experiment was tried, for 

 the same time, of measuring the rain-fall directly under the trees ; and it 

 was found that even there, besides the amount held by and evaporated 

 from the leaves and bark, there was more rain reached the surface of the 

 ground than in the open ground at the distant station. Then the evapora- 

 tion in the open location was four or five to one. 



Now, while forests may not have an effect on rain-fall, taking country 

 at large, yet they do have an influence. In tliese cases, I think Mr. Mee- 

 han woulfl acknowledge that the forests gained at the expense of the open 

 ground. That is very likely true ; but as to evaporation, I have no doubt 

 that forests have a direct effect. That, to my mind, is a great argument 

 in favor of tree planting in this country ; but we have not yet got sufficient 

 facts from which to draw^full conclusions. 



Mr. Greene — Professor Riley a.sks if the average of rain-fall is 

 affected by the destruction of timber? 



The question is, that while the average may be different during dif- 

 ferent years, yet we all know that as the soil becomes less fertile, it 



