WEST MICHIGAN FRUIT GROWERS' SOCIETY. 81 



only to refer you to a few years ago when the farmer or the fruit grower 

 planted his peach trees in the most convenient place, without any regard to 

 fitness or location. What was the result ? Why, he knew no such thing as 

 a failure in a crop because of cold. Ah! exclaims some one, this proves that 

 the cold is more severe now, because we cannot raise peaches under like con- 

 ditions. Wait a moment. It is admitted by all geologists and climatolo- 

 gists that large bodies of timber have wonderful influence in modifying the 

 nature and character of the atmosphere in their immediate locality. The 

 greater the natural growth of vegetation in any given country, the greater 

 will be the humidity and the rainfall ; while on the other hand, barren wastes 

 of sand are scarcely ever enlivened by a thunder shower. It is admitted, too, 

 that a hot wind of eighty degrees, blowing through a belt of timber 50 miles 

 in extent, will lose 15 degrees of its heat and 25 degrees of its force ; and on 

 the other hand, a cold wave of of 20 degrees below zero, of like force, pass- 

 ing through the same belt of timber, will lose five degrees of cold and a like 

 quantity of force. When we say the wave, whether hot or cold,loses its heat or 

 its cold, what do we really mean ? Why, we mean this : The timber of the belt 

 absorbs so much of the heat or of the cold. 



From the first settlements in this state until 1862, but little attention was 

 paid to weather records. The severity of that winter, causing as it did such 

 wholesale destruction of fruit trees, drew the attention of fruit men more 

 particularly to the effect of cold upon their trees. I wish also to draw your 

 attention to the fact that prior to 1862 the vast pine forests of our state 

 stood in all their sublime grandeur, like sentinels guarding us from the frosts 

 of the northwest, north, and northeast, absorbing the cold and thus render- 

 ing the wave harmless. Those mighty forests have fallen under the greed of 

 the lumber monopolist, and the safeguards of our tenderer varieties of fruit 

 are removed forever. 



Now, as I view the matter, the cold waves are not more frequent nor severe 

 in themselves, but the forests of our country having been destroyed, and 

 nothing standing in their paths to modify their terrible fury, we are left ex- 

 posed to their chilling breath and blighting influence. But while we lose by 

 the destruction of our forests we gain in proportion by the enhanced tem- 

 perature of Lake Michigan. The cutting away and removal of the vast 

 body of timber grown in this state, permits the solar rays to reach the 

 ground. Its surface is thus rendered several degrees warmer. Streams 

 shrink and morasses dry, consequently much less water is poured into the 

 lake during the summer months. But the quantity poured into the lake is 

 many degrees higher in temperature. The heating rays of the sun are only 

 in part absorbed by a thin coat of the surface of the ground, and since there 

 is no mobility in the particles of earth, the heat can be communicated down- 

 ward only by conduction; and as you all know, the solar influence does not 

 penetrate many feet into the ground, and what does soon passes off by radia- 

 tion. In fact, six hours in a still night, with the mercury at 28, only 4 

 degrees of frost, will give a coating of ice although the thermometer regis- 

 tered 85 the preceding day. On the other hand, the sun's rays falling on 

 water are not, as in the case of land, arrested at the surface, but penetrate 

 to the depth of from 500 to 600 feet in clear water. The amount of heat 

 communicated by the sun to equal surfaces of land and water is alike, but 

 that imparted to the water is diffused through a larger body and is less cooled 

 during the night by radiation. This being the case. Lake Michigan stores 



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