184 REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF THE 



DEATH OF HOJST. SANFORD HOWARD. 



The President read a letter from Hon. Sanford Howard, 

 written the previous week, and said : I am pained to have to 

 announce the death of Hon Sanford Howard, which occurred 

 at Lansing on Friday, the 10th inst. Mr. Howard had prom- 

 ised to deliver an address to the State Pomological Society, 

 but now he has left, I trust, for a still better land. 



The President read extracts from Prof. Winchell's pamphlet 

 on the 



CLIMATOLOGY OF MICHIGAN. 



The January cold of both peninsulas — the upper and lower 

 of Michigan — especially in the vicinity of the lakes, is much 

 less than that of Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, in the same 

 latitudes, at a distance from the lakes. Muskegon, for instance, 

 has a January temperature four degrees higher than Prairie 

 du Chien, both being on nearly the same parallel. Grand 

 Haven and Port Huron are five degrees above Milwaukee, all 

 being on the same parallel, while Detroit is six degrees above 

 Dubuque in winter temperature, and ten degrees above Fort 

 Dodge, the diflPerence in latitude between the three places being 

 very little. 



These advantages are great. Farmers and economists will 

 readily perceive them without any enumeration. But, after 

 all, the most striking differences are shown in the record of 

 extreme cold, which prominently attests the beneficent 

 influences of the surrounding bodies of lake water. Extreme 

 cold at Milwaukee is fourteen degrees below extreme cold at 

 Grand Haven ! This is the difference that distinguish between 

 a fruit-bearing region and one in which fruit fails. 



There is another fact which intending settlers would do well 

 to bear in mind, and which Michigan people, corresponding 

 with friends in other States, should make a point of: "The 

 growing season begins at Grand Haven three to six days 

 earlier than it does at Milwaukee, and continues five to eight 

 days later in the autumn. A still greater contrast exists 



