WINTER MEETING. 451 



earliest settlers in an indiscriminate slaughter and destruction of their tim- 

 ber. Any way to get rid of it was their motto. The theory of a wind-break 

 was not in their cyclopedia of knowledge. 



The scientific truth that the forests were the great equalizers of heat and 

 cold, o^ rain and sunshine, of storms and tempests, or as absorbents of the 

 deadly gases constantly exuding from decaying matter, spread broadcast l)y 

 the woodman's ax, had but light impression upon them. Neither did they 

 take the afterthought that as sure as effect follows cause, so sure would fol- 

 low the whole insect world to commence their ruinous depredations on the 

 fruits of the field and garden as soon as warmed into life by the penetrating 

 rays of the summer sun. 



Our observations from 18-33 to 1843 — just one decade — were years of plenty 

 and fruitful in the full sense of the term. No extreme storms, heat or cold 

 intervened to disturb the equilibrium of the seasons. No insect pest made 

 its appearance to depredate upon our grains or fruit. Plums, cherries, 

 peaches and apples were reasonably abundant and as fair as Pomona herself. 

 To this date the woodman's ax had not made such serious inroads as to take 

 more than a third of our forests, the equilibrium of the se; sons had been 

 fairly preserved, our yields of grain to the acre were abundant and satisfac- 

 tory to the husbandman. 



From 18 i3 to 1853, our second decade, southern Michigan settled up very 

 fast, nearly every section of land had its quota of families on it; the work 

 of removing the forests went forward with great energy, showing at the clos- 

 ing of the decade that at least five-eighths of the timber originally standing 

 between Lakes Erie and Michigan, as far north as the third tier of counties, 

 had gone by the consuming fire or passed through the saw-mill, manufactured 

 into lumber which sold for from six to ten dollars per thousand, which now 

 sells in the market for from 170 to $80 per thousand. 



In this decade we had our first experience with the Dakota blizzards. We 

 had opened a highway for them to travel in, and they were not slow in accept- 

 ing the invitation, gathering in their course as they left the Eocky mountains, 

 sweeping over the savannas of Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Lake 

 Michigan, striking our denuded territory with the fury of unchained light- 

 ning, it set our people to reflecting on their mistakes, especially when these 

 were enforced by extremes of heat and cold never before experienced here. 

 Nor was this all — our grain crops were twice cut off in these ten years by 

 drought and insect pests ; our fruits experienced their first set-back by excess- 

 ive freezing followed by burning suns, which had warmed into life the myri- 

 ads of fruit pests which lay waste and destruction in their wake and which 

 so far have stuck to us closer than a brother. 



From 1853 to the present time the same causes have prevailed, only in 

 a larger degree and more intense in their effect. Some of our cultivators have 

 overcome these causes in a measure by extra expense and labor in cultivation, 

 yet this practice is not general, but probably growing. 



From a careful analysis of the whole question it would seem to us that the 

 mistake so early made and so far-reaching in their consequences will be one 

 of the most difficult to correct. And yet we are not without hope. No great 

 errors will be likely to remain with our American farmers when they once see 

 them, without an effort to correct them. It will take agitation, line upon 

 line, precept upon precept, here a little by way of experiuient and there much 

 to determine the kinds of forestry to cultivate and set in the limited space the 



