158 STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 



the day's discussion. He thought that the present laws should be swept out of 

 existence. Hje thought the present laws were admirably adapted to the present 

 direful condition of affairs. Then there must be an enactment permitting the 

 cutting of timber under proper supervision. Here, he said, is where the real 

 question will come. Then he thought that provision for the care of such 

 young trees as came up as spontaneous growth, and provisions for replanting 

 should be made. 



AS TO THE LAWS. 



Mr. Byers said he had been familiar with land laws most of his life, and 

 thought that the repealing law, repealing all the laws except the homestead 

 law, was a good one. 



Mr. Pardee moved that the meeting appoint a standing committee of five to 

 be composed of men living in the arid belt, whose duty is to formulate bills 

 having in view the protection, care, and where necessary, the reforesting of 

 timber lands of the United States, now embraced in the arid region and cover- 

 ing the headwaters of the streams in the Rocky Mountain region, and to press 

 the same for the consideration of the Congress of the United States, and also 

 to prepare a bill for an act of Congress to provide that each pre-emptor or 

 homesteader may also be allowed to enter, in the same district, upon forty 

 acres of timbered land at the minimum price. 



The motion was carried. The chair appointed Mr. Pardee (chairman), Colo- 

 nel Ensign, Mr. Martin Allen, Professor Stark and W. N. Byers as the mem- 

 bers of the committee. 



Secretary Fernow then spoke for Mr. Cole, of Allegheny county, New York, 

 who was unable to be present. 



Mr. Cole proposes to change the character of the arid region by subterranean 

 irrigation. Mr. Fernow stated at length the system of Mr. Cole, and told the 

 remarkable results attained. Some of the statements were so remarkable as 

 to draw out hoots of derision from the congress. Mr. Fernow attested to the 

 truth of the statements. 



Governor Eaton, who was present, was then called upon, and was greeted 

 with applause. He stated that twenty-two years ago he had planted slips, 

 which are now two and one-half feet in diameter, and sixty feet high. He 

 stated in details his experience in planting cottonwoods, and spoke of the 

 importance of guarding the mountain forests. He regretted that he had not 

 been able to attend the meetings before. 



COLORADO CLIMATE. 



Mr. George H. Parsons then read a paper on Colorado climate, describing its 

 effects upon vegetation. The address was full of carefully compiled statis- 

 tics, and was listened to with great interest. 



The meeting then adjourned until Thursday afternoon. 



