MICHIGAN" STATE POMOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 489 



incredible to those not thoroughly conversant with our sur- 

 roundings. This it is that explains that cold January of 1864;, 

 when at Traverse Bay the thermometer marked 14° below zero, 

 at Milwaukee 40°, at Chicago 34°, at St. Louis 20°, and at 

 Memphis, Tenu., nearly 700 miles directly south of Traverse 

 Bay, 10° below zero. 



Now, the mighty influence for good upon the climate of our 

 State which these two giant agencies, lake and forest, may 

 exert if left untrammeled in their efibrts, we can readily con- 

 ceive. The great lakes, fortunately, are beyond our touch. 

 Each season finds them performing their mission unvaryingly, 

 and without the shadow of turning. They are beyond the let 

 •or hindrance of man. 



But not so with our forests. In forcmg them aside before 

 the advancing tide of civilization and improvement, zeal has 

 ■exceeded wisdom in their destruction. The great balance- 

 wheel of the seasons is shattered, and now, in the place of its 

 invariable revolution, in the place of regularity of rain-fall 

 and uniformity of temperature, we arc fast becoming inured 

 to ruinous and destructive extremes. Now a year of scorching 

 .-and consuming drought, in which the evaporations from our 

 farm's surface exceeds the rain-fall by from four to six inches, 

 succeeded by a year of disastrous precipitation of this excess 

 in floods and freshets, are no longer a subject of wonder and 

 remark. But above all, on our winters these changes have 

 wrought with twofold disaster. A Avinter in the Northwest is 

 now ever a matter of fear and concern, not infrequently of 

 deep anxiety. It comes upon us with a " nipping and eager 

 air," and with temper evidently soured by the changes which 

 it finds each year departing has left in its wake. It interests 

 and concerns not alone the man of science, who, snugly 

 ensconced in his study, traces with zeal, on his weather-map, 

 the courses and sweeps of some great and destructive storm, 

 notes the date of intensest cold, or the weather progDostics of 

 his morning paper, but every farmer of the State, however 



7«) 



