520 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



Iioiliculturist is its probable effect of retarding early frost. It is 

 a well known fact that a cloudy ni<i,lit at the beginning of the frost 

 season means freedom from frost for that night. The orange 

 growei'S of Florida and the grape growers of Central New York 

 build great smoke or smudge fires, covering their orchards and vine- 

 yards with a blanket of smoke, preventing the radiation of heat, 

 consequently removing danger of frost. Over an extended forested 

 area, interspersed with farms and gardens, much the same effect 

 can be produced. The watery exhalation from the forest, hereinbe- 

 fore spoken of, condensing overhead into the form of low hanging 

 clouds, acts in the same way as the smoke blanket, or a general 

 cloud covering. Of course no such effect could result from forests 

 of diminished size or ordinary woodland. 



The horticulturist, along with all others, enjoys many common ad- 

 vantages or beneiits of the forest. The question of irrigation is 

 one that does not confront the Pennsylvania fruit grower, but it is 

 a most vital question with his brother in California and other arid 

 regions of the West. Without the forest to conserve the snow and 

 rainfall, there could be little hope for extending the benefits of 

 irrigation. 



Such being the benefits conferred upon horticulture by the forest, 

 we look in vain for benefits to the forest conferred by the practice 

 of horticulture. In other words, the two do not stand in a recipro- 

 cal relation. It is wholly a one-sided matter; but the horticulturist 

 can, indeed, lend his influence toward the protection and preserva- 

 tion of the forest. He can, in the first place, refrain from de- 

 stroying it, should he happen to be the owner of any considerable 

 forest area. He can protect it from fire and spoliation, and insist 

 that others do the same. He can extol the virtues of the forest. 

 He can educate himself and his children to look upon it as a great 

 natural inheritance, "to be wisely used, reverently honored, and 

 carefully maintained." 



MK. CREASY. — This is a subject in which I am much interested, 

 and will be one of the great questions of the future. The subject 

 of rebates is one that has not been fully met. In sparsely settled 

 townships and counties in which are large tracts of forest, money 

 is needed for roads and schools, and where rebates are granted the 

 amount must be made up on other property. In our county the 

 great danger to forests from fires come from railroads, and if there 

 vvas some way to compel these corporations to assist in extinguish- 

 ing them, a great step would be gained. 



MR. McSPARRAN. — In justice to one of our railroads, I would 

 state that it is very careful to keep its right of way clear of any- 

 thing that might cause fires. They have track walkers who act as 

 wardens. 



MR. PETERS. — In Southern Pennsylvania there are thousands of 

 acres of forest almost covered with undergrowth, and have been 

 almost bare of trees for 25 years. Nearly every year these forests 

 are set on fire by freight trains, and nothing is said about it. It 

 has been suggested that owners of large forest tracts be compelled 

 to divided them into sections, and open avenues through them, so 

 as to facilitate the handling of fires. I think twenty-five or fifty dol- 

 lars i^aid annually to a conscientious man would guard or protect 

 5,000 acres. 



