VARIOUS NATIONAL SOCIETIES. 153 



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the Forestry Bureau. He said that in 1880 there was 27 per cent, of woodland 

 in the State, aud uow there is only 1? per cent. He said that they were now 

 trying to get an experimental station, and hoped for generous appropriations 

 from the legislature. 



THE COLORADO INTERESTS. 



Colorado was called and was responded to by Mr. W. W. Pardee. He said : 

 Our State is not an agricultural State. The first men came here for mineral 

 wealth, but later on came men who attempted the irrigation system until we 

 have become something of an agricultural State. As to tree planting, there 

 has been considerable along the ditches, and some tree breaks and some groves. 

 But in our city you will see every street lined with trees. This demonstrates 

 what can be done by energy and by water. 



Now the farmer begins to ask whether this water supply will continue. Now, 

 these streams come from the foot-hills of the mountains, aud they are gene- 

 rated in the mountains from the melting snow. The mountain forests have 

 now been so much stripped that these streams are beginning to diminish. The 

 great question in Colorado now is how shall we secure the water supply ? We 

 must start forests at the head waters of the streams. It was this idea which 

 gave rise to the State Forestry Association. Now, we come here hoping to get 

 -encouragement and aid from you, gentlemen, because we feel that unless we 

 have the perpetuity of our water supply assured the agricultural resources of 

 the State will diminish until this tract will again become the Great American 

 Desert. 



Secretary Fernow then announced that he had received many letters from 

 members regretting that the distance was so great that they were unable to 

 attend. He read a letter from the secretary of the Pennsylvania Forestry 

 Association, giving an account of the forestry work which has been done in 

 that State. On motion the letter was ordered spread upon the records. 



ILLINOIS. 



The chairman, Mr. G. W. Minier, of Illinois, was then called upon to speak 

 for his State. He said : We treat the trees with very great respect. We 

 gather in the forests the seeds of the various forest trees and plant them in the 

 towns. It is true that many of our forests have been destroyed, but we will 

 have, I am sure, in a few years more trees in the State than when Illinois was 

 settled. We are planting belts — that is, two or three, or half a dozen rows 

 around our farms. We do not have the destructive winds which we hud. We 

 have planted evergreen trees, which act as wind-breaks to farms and vine- 

 yards. 



Always select the trees in your immediate vicinity for planting. Those are 

 the most natural. Go to the nearest groves and select your trees. Treat 

 foreigners with respect, but don't depend on them. 



Dr. Berry, of Illinois, then arose aud said : I am from the southern part of 

 the State. Our forestry interests there represent the destructive element. 

 Along the Wabash valley they are slaughtering those forests to a terrible extent. 

 I believe that some will live to see that white oak sold by the pound. I make 

 these remarks to show that the conditions in the southern part of the State 

 are different from those of the northern. 

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