150 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



with us, in our climate, — every one of you feels it on such a 

 day as to-day, and in the hottest days in summer, — the great 

 difficulties are the excessive cold and the excessive heat. The 

 more we can do to cover the hills with trees, the more we do 

 to diminish that excessiveness of the climate. On such a day 

 as day before yesterday, if you had a great hill directly 

 north-west of you, covered with trees, the wind would have 

 been less violent in every street in this pleasant town ; 

 and so it will always be. You cannot cover a hill with 

 trees without diminishing the violence of the winds that 

 sweep over it. 



I do not know, gentlemen, that I need say anything more 

 to you. These are among the things that I wanted to say. I 

 wish you would take an interest in this matter. It is of very 

 great importance. It is really of national importance. I 

 went last year, as I told 3^ou, to Washington, to see what 

 could be done. I have been studying this subject for many 

 years, and know something of the evil and the remedy. I 

 wanted the general government to do something for the pro- 

 tection of the forests and for the prevention of this enormous 

 evil. I studied it out, and came to the conclusion, as I have 

 stated to you, that in ten or twelve years the forests on the 

 Atlantic slope would be cut down, unless something was done. 

 I went to the leading men in Washington ; I went to the 

 President. He said it was a most important subject ; he was 

 very much obliged to me for coming there, for no private 

 object, but for a public improvement of that kind. I went, 

 as I have said, to all the leading men, and they all expressed 

 themselves in the same way. The President did exactly what 

 I asked him to do. He said he approved of my memorial, 

 and would act upon it immediately. That was Friday morn- 

 ing. On the next Monday, he sent in the memorial, and 

 requested that it should be referred to a committee. Every- 

 body to whom I spoke on the subject did everything I asked 

 them to do. They said it was a very important question ; that 

 I deserved the thanks of the community for calling attention 

 to it ; but nothing was done. It was referred to a committee, 

 and the committee found that it would cost eight thousand or 

 ten thousand dollars a year to have a man to take charge of 

 the whole matter, go everywhere, and find out about it ; and 



