8 TRANSACTIONS OF THE ILLINOrS 



We found the Governor fully appreciated tiie value of the Walsh collec- 

 tion and the desirability of retaining it within the State, and, as you are 

 aware, he has since purchased it. and it is temporarilv deposited in the 

 Academy of Sciences at Chicago. As regards the othce of State Ento- 

 mologist, we found several worthy candidates : but. after due inquiry, we 

 agreed that Dr. Wm. Le Baron of Geneva, was the most desirable man 

 for the place, and solicited, with others, that he might receive it. The 

 Governor, after due deliberation, gave him the appointment. 



Resolutions passed at the last meeting offering to co-operate with the 

 State Agricultural Society in holding their Annual Fair, were submitted 

 to the Board of that Societ)-' in January last, but they declined to do more 

 than receive our advice in making up a premium list, and no further 

 action was had in the pi^emises. I submit their action on the subject 

 herewith. 



There are a few subjects to which I will venture to call your attention 

 as of special, or at least iminediate importance. 



First of.these is an act for the encouragement of timber planting. It 

 is estimated by those who have the best means for judging, that we pre 

 near the end of the natural supply of pine lumber in the North and West. 

 From 15 to 25 years is the estimated extent of its duration. Our own 

 forests of less valuable trees are rapidly decreasing in the demand for newl 

 fields, and more firewood Whilst it is true that the Osage orange wil 

 give us the fences which we cannot longer aflbrd to build of northern 

 pine; and iron, stone, and brick will doubtless to a great extent replace 

 wood in our buildings, bridges, furniture, and implements; and while 1 

 have less fears than many have of any change of climate resulting from 

 the removal of our somewhat scanty wood-growth of Illinois, nevertheless 

 I believe that sound public policy, forecasting statesmanship, demands that 

 we shall do what we can to encourage the planting and growing of tim- 

 ber trees. I hope a committee will be appointed to draft a bill to be 

 discussed, amended, if need be, and approved by this meeting, and then 

 submitted to the General Assembly, for the encouragement of ti'ee plant- 

 ing, and the preservation of woodlands. 



The desirabilit}' of experiments in many points connected with Hor- 

 ticulture should give this Society an interest in an attempt to establish 

 Agricultural Experiment Stations in various parts of the State, which 

 shall do somewhat the same work for Illinois that Lawes and Gilbert 

 have done for England, and the "Versuchs Stationen " for Germany. I 

 suggest here and shall propose elsewhere, that vs^hei'ever in a fit locality, 

 citizens shall donate to the State desirable buildings and grounds for an 

 Experiment vStation, the State shall appropriate an annual amount of 

 $2,000 or $3,000 to maintain a chemist or physiologist, and furnish him 

 the means of making a continuous, exact, and varied series of experi- 

 ments and observations bearing on the relations of natural science to 

 agriculture and horticulture. We have the word of such men as Liebig, 

 Pugh, and Johnson that these are the best means yet devised for increas- 

 ing agricultural knowledge, and I suggest that this Society take the 

 subject under consideration and lend its influence to the undertaking^. 



