INDIANA HOETICULTUEAL SOCIETY. 265 



lands and to give information and direction for forest and timber culti- 

 vation, to establish State forest reserves and to be a bureau of information 

 on timber and timber conditions of the State to associations and meetings 

 of lumbermen, timber dealers, woodvi^orliers, farmers and engineers of 

 maintenance of way of railroads. These duties connect it directly with the 

 industrial institutions. The purposes of the department of forestry and the 

 plans of action as they are directed for attempted execution by the board 

 may be stated in the following sentences: 



1. To act as a bureau in the best sense for information on timber 

 and timber conditions, forest and timberland promotion and cultivation 

 for Indiana. 



2. To incite the fostering and pei-petuation of the present timber areas 

 in the State by inducing a better saving use of the forest product and the 

 continuation of timber tracts in forest as against clearing them off and 

 putting them into agriculture when a forest crop has been harvested. 



3. To stimulate the planting of the different forms of waste lands to 

 timber of the most valuable liinds suited to their soil and moisture con- 

 ditions. 



4. To stimulate the planting, cultivation, and retention of good agri- 

 cultural lands in the best merchantable species of trees to the extent of a 

 reasonable ratio between the agricultural and timber areas, as shown to be 

 for the best good of the general welfare. 



5. To encourage shelter and ornamental tree planting around prem- 

 ises, orchards, along the highways and on public grounds. 



6. To establish State forest reserves where intelligent forestry may be 

 executed and the results given out for the benelit of the people of Indiana. 



These plans rightly carried out will be of much importance to industrial 

 Indiana in agriculture, manufactvu-e, building, construction, labor and 

 trade. The agricultural interests are being affected by the great defor- 

 estation that is now under such strong headway. I do not want to be un- 

 derstood as claiming that all the agricultural disasters are due to the lack 

 of forests, but I do want to be understood as saying that the large 

 clearing away of the forests is responsible for some of it. 



I am satisfied that our changed climate is largely due to the denuda- 

 tion of forests. The almost certain drouth of summer and the spasmodic 

 extremes of freezing in winter, the more destructive winds and hail storms 

 are all results influenced by the absence of a proper forest area. You as 

 farmers know the results of the drouth, freezing and storms to your 

 pasture, fruit growing and grain crops, and their hinging relations to stock 

 raising. 



The argument is that forests are sources of moisture to the atmos- 

 phere, conserA^ators of the rainfall against rapid evaporation and a means 

 of storage for fallen moisture by reason of the forest litter and roots to 

 direct it into the earth and hold it. 



