THE JUNE MEETING. 291 



predicted by the signal corps of the War Department. There are local storms, 

 however, which are not so predicted. Hum bold says, by the destruction of the 

 forest man is bringing upon himself two wants : the want of timber and the 

 want of rain. The question naturally arises, why the prairies still have rains ? 

 I shall not answer that question, but will refer more particularly to the effect 

 of denuding a country of a forest that has long been protected by timber. 

 From 1841 to 1861 there were 44 inches of rainfall a year; from 1862 to 1871 

 the rainfall was only 23 inches a year. During the past ten years we have been 

 " clearing up the country," as we call it, — destroying the country, I fear we 

 shall find it. The experience even on islands, the Canary Island for instance, 

 has been the almost total destruction of the fertility of the soil as a direct 

 effect of the destruction of the forest. This experience in France caused the 

 French Government to order the extensive planting of forest trees. In Japan 

 the Yankee idea of destruction of the forest has been introduced until it has 

 become a subject of earnest remonstrance. Prof. Henry, of the Smithsonian 

 Institution, has been obtaining information as to the amount of rainfall. At 

 the Agricultural College we have found the average of the year to be 30 inches. 

 Suppose we find the monthly fall is two and a half to three inches ; if this were 

 spread evenly all over the month, it would be of much more value than if it 

 all falls in one shower. The evenness of the distribution is of more conse- 

 quence than the amount of rainfall. The year 1871 was a year of disastrous 

 drouth, and yet the rainfall was two inches more than in 1867, which was not 

 a disastrous year. 



The influence of elevated portions of the State, and the protection of forests 

 ifi not fully understood. In the first place cold air is heavy. In school houses, 

 "where I have recently made observations, I found there was a difference of nine- 

 teen degrees between the desk level and the floor. The same difference in a 

 less degree exists in the open air. Mr. Parmelee, of Grand Traverse, has an 

 elevated basin of land, and it was found that his crops always froze there. He 

 tried draining this land, and the cold followed the course of the ditch from the 

 highest to the lowest portion thereof. Cold, like water, follows the course of 

 gravitation. When the temperature on Mount Washington marked four 

 degrees below zero, on the low land around it the temperature was twenty 

 degrees below zero. This law will not hold where we have air in rapid motion. 

 In the winter of 1873, where we had a strong gale, the upland and the valleys 

 suffered alike. 



The choir sang " The Corn is Waving, Annie dear." 



OFFERINGS TO POMONA. 



The President. — Nothing is more grateful to the mind than the reminis- 

 ences of the past. The worship of the ancients at the shrine of Pomona was 

 at least a natural and a grateful worship. Why should not we, who enjoy in 

 such rich profusion the blessings which she bestows, render her some tribute 

 of praise ? I have great pleasure in introducing Mrs. Dr. Wheaton, who will 

 deliver a poem written for the occasion. 



Mrs. Dr. Wheaton read the following ode which she had written to be sung 

 at this meeting. It was enthusiastically applauded. 



ODE TO POMONA. 



Come, O, my muse, in strains of fire : 



Pomona's praises sing; 

 Bring hither the immortal lyre. 



And touch its brightest string ! 



